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

Turkish imam in Copenhagen says embassy spied on 4 people, 14 schools

A religious adviser to the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen, Adnan Bülent Baloğlu told a local paper that the Turkish outpost has collected information on “4 individuals and 14 schools” affiliated with the Gulen movement in Denmark.

Source claims US not probing into Gulenists’ alleged role in Russian ambassador’s murder

No investigation has been launched in the United States in connection with Turkey’s comments of the Gulen movement’s possible role in the Russian ambassador’s murder, a senior US Department of State official told TASS.

594 Young Children Growing Up In Turkish Prisons

Five hundred ninety-four children under the age of 6 are being kept with their mothers in Turkish prisons, Turkey’s Ministry of Justice said, the Diken news website reported on Tuesday.

Denmark charges Turkish informants as spies

A broad ranging investigation by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has resulted in trials being opened against three people who informed on Turkish citizens living in Denmark to the Turkish government, Turkish news portal Gazete Duvar reported on Monday.

Turkish mob boss to gov’t: Why bother with diplomacy? We’ll kill Gülen, his followers

Turkey’s infamous mob boss Alaattin Çakıcı implied in a letter to the Justice Ministry that his mafia network could kill Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen in Pennsylvania and his senior followers elsewhere in the world. Çakıcı’s letter came weeks after Turkey’s controversial request that the US extradite Gülen.

Turkey’s crackdown threatens German stability, Gulen followers fear

As storekeeper Cem Celik closes his small supermarket in one of Berlin’s traditional Turkish neighbourhoods for the night, he is bracing himself for what lies ahead.

Latest News

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

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Royalties provide Fethullah Gülen with modest income, his lawyer says

Soul searching inside the Gülen movement

Kimse Yok Mu extends help to thousands in Palestine

No place for excuses!

Nigeria wants more Turkish schools to increase quality of education

Dozens of Dutch-Turkish businesses ‘threatened’ after failed coup

Kimse Yok Mu and MASFED to open hospital in Ethiopia

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News