MESOP NEWS : ERDOGAN’S SPY-CENTERS – THE MOSQUES IN GERMANY

Germany Investigating Possible Spying Activities in Turkish Mosques

By Ruth Bender – Wall Street Journal – Posted 2017-01-18 20:19 GMT – BERLIN — German prosecutors are investigating possible spying activities in the association of Turkish mosques known as Ditib, the federal prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.The investigation is focusing on whether some of Ditib’s Imams handed over information to Turkey about followers of the U.S.-based Turkish imam Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of masterminding last year’s failed coup.Ditib, Germany’s largest association of mosques, last week said in a local newspaper interview that some of its Imams in the country had handed over information about Mr. Gulen’s followers to the Ankara-based Presidency of Religious Affairs, also referred to as Diyanet, which reports to Turkey’s prime minister’s office. Some German newspapers had previously reported the spying allegations.

“The written request from Diyanet wasn’t directed at Ditib. Some Imams nevertheless wrongly followed it,” said Bekir Alboga, general secretary of Ditib, which manages some 900 mosques in Germany. “We deeply regret this mishap.”

Ole Schröder, parliamentary secretary for the interior ministry, told a German parliamentary session Wednesday the government was aware that Diyanet had prompted all Turkish embassies and religious representatives abroad in a letter last year to compile information about Mr. Gulen’s followers.A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor said prosecutors are investigating against people “unknown.” Volker Beck, a lawmaker in Germany’s parliament for the center-left Greens, said he had already filed a complaint with the federal prosecutor in December about the spying allegations. “It now must be clarified if some of the suspects left the country due to the late start of the investigation,” Mr. Beck said in a statement. German authorities are “very attentive” the people in question aren’t leaving the country, Mr. Schröder said. It isn’t the first time Ditib has come under scrutiny in Germany.

Since the failed coup, German officials have been worried that Turkey’s internal politics are spilling over into German cities, inciting supporters of Mr. Erdogan against his opponents, and sowing divisions between Germany and its three million residents of Turkish descent.Some politicians have singled out Ditib as serving as a mouthpiece of Mr. Erdogan.

A speech dispatched by Diyanet and published by Ditib in July, in the middle of Mr. Erdogan’s crackdown on alleged coup supporters, raised eyebrows here. The speech praised “our noble nation” for rising up against “a wretched network” that had sown “seeds of sedition, rebellion and hostility,” a tough rhetoric widely interpreted as alluding to Mr. Gulen’s followers.

Some German states also froze cooperation with Ditib last year on providing religious education in schools, citing concerns it isn’t sufficiently independent from Ankara. Ditib has rejected the charges of political agitation as “tendentious” and “prejudiced,” saying it has always been nonpartisan and neutral. German officials Wednesday suggested Ditib’s independence should be reviewed in view of the spying probe.”It is now time to verify if Ditib is still an independent, self-determined religious community,” Mr. Schröder told members of parliament, adding Germany’s 16 states were in charge of conducting such verifications. www.mesop.de