MESOP NEWS : Germany arrests suspected Turkish spy for monitoring Kurds / 6000 MIT AGENTS IN GERMANY

17 Dec 2016 – The German authorities arrested a suspected Turkish spy that was spying on Kurdish organizations and institutions was arrested, the German Federal Prosecution in Hamburg said on Friday.

The 31-year-old suspect, who was arrested in Hamburg on Thursday, had obtained information about the whereabouts, contact persons and political activities of Kurds living in Germany as well as about Kurdish institutions. The information was passed on to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT). The German polices searched the suspects house. He is still under investigation, the German Tagesschau reported.

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Germany and Europe for not doing enough against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

This is not the first time reports emerged that Turkish agents were active in Europe. In late November, German media reported that the state prosecutor’s office in Bremen had initiated an investigation into a Turkish agent conspiring to kill two people active in the Kurdish community outside Turkey. One of alleged targets of the murder plot was Yüksel Koc, a Kurdish activist based in Bremen. The second was Remzi Kartal, who lives in Brussels and is the chair of the Kurdish organization Kongra-Gel, reported The Local newspaper. Furthermore, French investigators have found that Turkey’s secret services were probably involved in the murder of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in 2013.

The Turkish suspect Omer Guney was believed to have murdered Sakine Cansiz, 54, a high-ranking PKK member, along with Fidan Dogan, 29, and Leyla Seylemez, 25, at a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris in 2013.European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E) in a statement on 9 November, 2016, called on European governments, and especially Germany to do more to prevent the assassination and the spying activists by the Turkish government against Kurdish organizations.

“Such persons may have the status of a Consul General, an official, a clergymen, but are actually charged with spreading terrorism in Europe together with ISIS to kill Kurdish people and intimidate them should be deported,” the organization said.According to the Kurdish organization, the Turkish president and government have sent agents to Europe “as part of the consulates and embassies in European countries” to kill Kurdish activists and collect information about Kurdish organizations. The KCDK-E pointed out that the German press confirmed there are around 6,000 informers working for the Turkish intelligence in EU countries.  www.mesop.de