Germany: Turkish Intel’s spy list may be deliberate provocation

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere


Date posted: March 31, 2017

Germany’s interior minister said Thursday that Turkey’s intelligence agency may have given its German counterpart a list of suspected supporters of a U.S.-based cleric to “provoke us in some way.”

Last month, Turkey’s MIT agency handed German intelligence a list of some 300 alleged supporters of Fethullah Gulen thought to be living in Germany, among them reportedly a German lawmaker.

Officials have said Turkey asked the Germans to put those people under surveillance.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ZDF television that he suspected the move may have been intended to weigh on Turkish-German relations, “to provoke us in some way.” He said he didn’t believe it was meant as a contribution to anti-terrorist reconnaissance.

The Turkish government claims Gulen supporters were behind a July coup attempt. Gulen denies orchestrating it.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim acknowledged that an MIT undersecretary gave Germany’s intelligence chief a file on Gulen’s movement at a Munich security conference. Yildirim told Turkish broadcaster NTV the exchange was routine and he condemned the way the information has been treated in Germany.

“Unfortunately, of course, intelligence organizations share such information with each other. This should not be leaked to any side,” he said. “But it is clear that this information in Germany was given to government sources and they used it. This is, first of all, not ethical. It does not fit intelligence practices.”

Source: ABC News , March 30, 2017

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Former Turkish President Gül denies having any relationship with the Gülen movement or Fethullah Gülen but history tells…

In his answers, Gül denied having relations with neither the Gülen movement nor Fethullah Gülen. But, history tells the opposite: Gül attended many activities of the Gülen movement; he even hosted, in his official residence, students of Turkish schools from many countries during a Turkish Language and Culture Olympiad.

Independent deputy says there may be an attempt to pin political murders on Gülen movement

İlhan İşbilen, an independent deputy for İzmir, has said some sections of society are part of a “dirty scenario” that aims to make sure the Gülen movement, a faith-based grassroots social initiative, is uttered in the same breath as extrajudicial political killings.

A major scandal by the Mukhabarat state

The voice recordings of four phone calls made to Fethullah Gülen were posted on the Internet at midnight on Monday. As you know, Gülen lives in the US. Those who phoned him are some executives from institutions established and run by the people who are inspired by the Hizmet movement in Turkey. The calls do not have any incriminating content. Rather, one of these unlawfully wiretapped recordings exposes how the Hizmet movement was targeted in a conspiracy by circles close to the government.

‘Consider your husband dead, start a new life,’ prosecutor tells detainee’s wife

Cumhuriyet daily columnist Aydın Engin wrote on Wednesday that the wife of a detainee sent him a letter claiming that a prosecutor told her to consider her husband dead since he can never be freed.

Power struggle for the state or deep rift about Turkey?

As an external observer, I see a profound rift having taken place between Erdoğan — more than anybody else in the AKP — and the Hizmet movement; and that has much less to do with the power struggle than a resistance to another massive, individual attempt to accumulate power in one person.What has defined Erdoğan’s way with various social segments since 2011 is to alienate, antagonize, suppress and devour. So was his pattern with the dissident Kurds, Alevis, leftists, liberals and now Hizmet.

A Genocide in the Making – Genocidal action stage by stage by the Turkish government against the Hizmet movement

Dr Ismail Sezgin, Director of Centre for Hizmet Studies is questioning if a genocide is in the making in Turkey, exploring the development of a genocidal action stage by stage by the Turkish government against the Hizmet movement.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

AFSV Statement on Temporary US Travel and Immigration Ban

Micro-Finance and Vocational Training for Empowerment of Women

PM’s son: Dad, let’s initiate an operation against Hizmet’s senior members

International students celebrate Prophet Muhammad in Gaziantep

ACDC Builds Clean Water Well in Benin!

Fourth Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival in Los Angeles

Zaman Editor-in-Chief Dumanlı faces probe over ‘insult’ to Erdoğan in news report

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News