Germany Declines Turkish Request to Freeze Gulen Assets


Date posted: September 2, 2017

BERLIN — Germany has rejected a formal request from Turkey to freeze assets of members of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating last year’s failed coup, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.

The move is likely to worsen already strained ties between the two NATO allies after Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday Germany should react decisively to Turkey’s detention of two more German citizens on political charges.

Without naming its sources, the magazine said the Turkish government had asked the Foreign Ministry in Berlin at the end of April to freeze the assets of the Gulen organisation and its members in Germany. It attached a list with 80 names, it said.

The German government officially rejected the request at the end of June, telling Ankara there were no legal grounds for Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin to crack down on the Gulen movement and its supporters, the report said.

The Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined to comment.


Germany has rejected a formal request from Turkey to freeze assets of members of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The German government officially rejected the request at the end of June, telling Ankara there were no legal grounds for Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin to crack down on the Gulen movement and its supporters.


The report also said that the number of Turkish extradition requests sent to Germany had jumped to 53 since the beginning of the year, already exceeding the total in the whole of 2016.

Turkey’s private Dogan news agency said Turkish authorities had detained two German nationals on Thursday over suspected links to last year’s failed coup attempt.

Dogan said the two German citizens of Turkish origin were detained at the Antalya airport, a popular Mediterranean tourist destination, over alleged links to the Gulen organisation.

It said the two suspects, identified only as K.A. and S.A., were transferred to the provincial police headquarters.

Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment, with the celebrations for the Muslim festival of Eid causing delays in contacting officials.

Twelve German citizens are now in Turkish detention on political charges, four of them holding dual citizenship. Among these is German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who will have been in detention 200 days on Friday.

The detentions have further strained ties between Germany and Turkey after relations hit a low when President Tayyip Erdogan said Merkel’s Christian Democrats were enemies of Turkey and called on Turks in Germany to vote against major parties in this month’s elections.

Social Democrat Martin Schulz, Merkel’s main challenger in Sept. 24 elections, and other German politicians have urged the German government to issue a formal travel warning to raise the pressure on Turkey.

Such a step could mark a significant setback for Turkey, which already saw the number of foreign visitors drop to its lowest level in nine years last year. Bookings from Germany accounted for some 10 percent of Turkey’s tourists this year.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Ros Russell)

Source: New York Times , September 2, 2017


Related News

A Turkish family has disappeared in Pakistan, and suspicion turns to intelligence agencies

“The police are expressing ignorance about the picking up of Mr. Mesut, so who did this?” asked Muhammed Zubair, a doctor whose children attended the PakTurk school in Peshawar and who represents the parent-teacher association. “This is a dangerous trend and will send a negative image of Pakistan abroad.”

Are we to wait for our Fethullah Gulen?

Serhii LASHCHENKO The power of the Turkish philosopher is that he gradually managed to captivate hundreds of thousand of people with his ideas. How did he do that? Through schools. As a good gardener that created his bountiful garden for years and decades, Fethullah Gulen directed his pupils toward consecutive and persistent transmission of knowledge […]

Turkey purge victims unable to find jobs, leave country

“It’s a kind of civil death,” Kerem Altiparmak, a human rights lawyer and political science professor at Ankara University told Los Angeles Times on Wednesday when describing how the lives of thousands of people change after the July 15 coup attempt.

European Muslims Want Participation, Not Integration: Role of the Gulen Movement

A conference hosted by the Catholic Academy in Stuttgart together with two associations of the Gülen movement (aka Hizmet movement) in Baden-Württemberg, “Süddialog” and “Begegnungen”, focused on Christian and Islamic initiatives in cooperative public welfare efforts. The story gives clues about Gulen movement’s role in Muslim’s integration and participation in Germany. While German politicians continue […]

Erdoğanist Turks Target Inter-Cultural Dialogue Activities Of Gülen Followers In Germany

A group of pro-Erdoğan Turkish Islamists came together in the city of Duisburg, Germany, and protested the schools operated and inter-cultural dialogue activities which have been carried out by the Turkish people who are affiliated with the Gülen movement.

Norway reports 409 Turkish asylum seekers in past 18 months

Norway has said the number of asylum seekers from Turkey has been increasing substantially. 245 Turkish nationals have claimed asylum in 2018, including 142 arrriving in June. The total number of asylum seekers was 164 in 2017, according to Norway’s Directorate of Immigration.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Islamic scholar Gülen’s poems turned into songs for international album

The Dutch Turkish community must speak out about the anti-Gülen violence

Erdoğan, Hizmet, assassins

Abant Platform discusses thriving relations between Turkey and Africa

Rebecca Harms: Working in Gülen-linked educational institutions not a crime

Volunteer doctors from Turkey save lives in Somalia

A way to hide the truth: the Hizmet Movement

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News