German state warns Turkey against spying on Gulenists

BERLIN / AP

German officials on Tuesday warned Turkey against spying on its territory, after Ankara allegedly sought Berlin’s help in eavesdropping on hundreds of Turks in Germany thought to be supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish government claims Gulen supporters were behind a July coup attempt and has arrested 41,000 people in a crackdown on the moderate Islamic religious movement and other groups. Gulen denies orchestrating the failed coup. Turkey is seeking his extradition from the United States.
Last month, Turkey’s foreign intelligence agency MIT handed its German counterpart a list of some 300 suspected Gulen supporters living in Germany. Boris Pistorius, the interior minister of the German state of Lower Saxony, said on Tuesday that Turkey had asked the Germans to put the people named under surveillance. Pistorius said officials in his state had decided to warn those on the list that they might face repression or arrest if they entered Turkey. He said there was “no evidence that Gulen supporters in Germany had anything to do with the attempted putsch.”
He accused the Turkish government of having an “almost paranoid fear of conspiracy” and of trying to silence its critics.
Germany’s top security official, Thomas de Maiziere, said the country would not tolerate foreign spying on its soil.