The detention remained a secret until the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported about it last week. The arrests showed that the regime is not just suspicious of Western visitors.
Rabia Karakaya Polat and Seda Demiralp Yilankaya, both political scientists at Istanbul’s Isik University were invited to a conference by the University of Tehran in late May.
Another academic from Koc University, economist Okan Yilankaya, also joined them on their journey to Tehran, although he had not been invited to the conference.
The three arrived in Tehran May 28 and were taken into custody June 1 as they were getting ready to return to Turkey at the conclusion of the conference on the Arab Spring.
During their 12 days in custody, the three were interrogated on charges of spying for the United States.
During their imprisonment, Turkish embassy officials contacted Iranian authorities and asked for their release, saying they were in Tehran only for academic purposes.
The three were released June 12 after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu telephoned his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, a Turkish official told Today’s Zaman.
The incident became public at a time of threatening statements from top Iranian civilian and military leaders assailing Turkey for agreeing to host NATO’s early-warning radar system on its soil, warning of unspecified consequences.