MESOP TODAYS BACKGROUNDER: By ABDULLAH BOZKURT – Islamists risk rupture in Turkey’s ties with Germany

The main challenge the Islamists in the Turkish government and their ringmaster President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have in recent years brought upon bilateral ties with Germany — the powerhouse of the European Union and Turkey’s largest trading partner — is their promotion through state-sponsored activities of a hostile brand of political Islamist ideology amid the Turkish and Muslim diaspora. (…) These international relations grew rocky after Islamists secretly launched a project to turn the diaspora into a bastion of Islamist support to encourage Erdoğan’s dream of leading all Muslims in Europe, reportedly part of his undeclared goal of becoming a caliph in his self-perceived image to appeal to all the world’s Muslims. He has used taxpayers’ money to finance the establishment of a European network for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

His sinister plans were disguised under programs that were purportedly devised to meet legitimate demands from expatriates. Islamists looked at Turks abroad as simply proxies to promote their partisan and ideological positions rather than richness to boost ties with a helpful narrative and an endorsement for integration in any real sense.

In fact, Erdoğan’s controversial rallies in Germany and his antagonistic remarks about the host government have brought further strain to bilateral relations with Germany. His actions and rhetoric hurt German Turks more than ever, put them in the spotlight in the German public’s minds and thwarted integration efforts. When required, Erdoğan did not hesitate to mobilize his much-invested network in Germany whenever he felt cornered in Turkey such as during the anti-government Gezi Park events in the summer of 2013, or in the aftermath of the corruption scandal that implicated him and his family members. In the end, the AKP government’s policies crafted by Erdoğan have effectively driven a further wedge between the larger German society and the Turkish minority.

When his popularity waned at home, Erdoğan turned to highly divisive and hateful politics to sustain his rule in the hope of consolidating the support of Sunni Turks behind the AKP government. He did not mind at all exporting these divisions to Germany. His hostile narrative stigmatizing Alevis, Kurds and moderate groups such as members of the Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has been reflected in the community of some 3 million Turks living in Germany. Just like he abused the reins of state power to provoke vulnerable groups in Turkey, he tried to do the same in German society with relentless clandestine activities.

The German government knew long ago how corrupt a politician Erdoğan is before the details of the massive corruption investigations into his graft network were exposed in December 2013. Although German intelligence had a clear understanding of the corruption scheme, the 2007 Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity case that was tried under the German criminal justice system provided the first public snapshot into Erdoğan’s dealings. The suspects that embezzled millions of euros from Germany’s Turks were convicted and the charity’s assets were confiscated. German prosecutor Kerstin Lötz said, “The main suspects are in Turkey,” and sent the case file to Turkey. Yet the AKP government covered up the scandal by hushing up the Turkish leg of the investigation into the charity group and cleared all suspects. Had the case been pursued, it would have led to the conviction of senior Islamists in the AKP government.

I think two developments rang serious alarm bells in Berlin. One was the deliberate attempt by Erdoğan to project his divisive politics to the diaspora in Germany and therefore risk social peace and harmony in the European country. Germany responded to that challenge by nabbing high-level operatives working for Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) including a close and senior aide to Erdoğan and put them on public trial. The case is perhaps unprecedented, excluding spy cases involving East Germany during the Cold War era. The operatives were allegedly plotting to scare, defame and profile groups unsupportive of Erdoğan. With the public case, the German government made clear that it would not tolerate any sort of intimidation and harassment of its Turkish minority.The second and perhaps more troubling concern emerged within the German security establishment when Turkey’s neck-deep involvement in supporting radical groups fighting to topple Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria reached out to expatriates in Germany. Erdoğan’s secret support for radical groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Jabhat al-Nusra and the Ahrar al-Sham was closely monitored by German intelligence. Several test cases where Turkey failed to turn over high-profile ISIL suspects detained by Turkish police and wanted in Germany but instead let them join ISIL’s ranks in Syria convinced Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government that Erdoğan is simply playing a duplicitous game regarding the security of its allies.

The main group being watched closely by German intelligence for some time is the Ahrar al-Sham, a Turkey-backed group that has attracted more Turks to its ranks than any other radical group fighting in Syria. After intense pressure from NATO allies, Islamists in Turkey have by and large scaled down their support to al-Nusra since the summer of 2014 in favor of trying to prop up the Ahrar al-Sham as the main fighting force against al-Assad’s regime. Erdoğan unsuccessfully tried to convince allies that the anti-ISIL battle should include support for the Ahrar al-Sham, which Turkey’s Islamists described as moderate.

The threat of the possible radicalization of Turkish Muslims in Germany as a result of controversial policies pursued by Islamists in the AKP government, which was accused of facilitating the flow of foreign fighters arriving in Syria from all over the world, is something about which the German government is very concerned. It is amazing to see how things have changed in sharp contrast to early 2000 when the Turkish government worked very closely to monitor a few Turks who lived in Germany but traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in pursuit of joining the ranks of radical groups such as al-Qaeda. Even the Religious Affairs Directorate, previously seen by Germans as an institution to closely engage with so that it may help to better integrate Turkish Muslims, has now turned into suspect number one in the eyes of Germans because Islamists, just like every other government agency, turned the directorate into a bastion of clandestine activities that trouble German security services.

Germany is understandably concerned that individuals who are radicalized after traveling to Syria and Iraq may well return and use Germany as a base for recruitment and logistics. They may even stage violent attacks inside Germany. The same threat is definitely more valid regarding Turkish national security as the country has a long and porous border with Syria, yet Islamists feign a total lack of unease about that prospect. Apart from paying lip service by making a few public remarks against ISIL, there has been no significant policy change when it comes to handling suspected ISIL militants. Almost all the suspected members of ISIL who were rounded up since last month’s deal with the US have been released.

Reflecting the growing sense of unease about Turkey, the German government withdrew Patriot batteries that were deployed in Turkey in 2013 as part of a NATO mission to enhance a member state’s air defenses after a mortar bomb fired from Syria killed five Turkish civilians in the town of Akçakale on the Syrian border in 2012. The decision that was apparently coordinated with the Americans, who are also withdrawing their own Patriots from Turkey, is a testament to the deep mistrust NATO allies have come to feel about Islamists. As Cem Özdemir, the co-chairman of the Green Party in Germany, bluntly put it in his recent interview with Die Welt, Turkey risks the lives of German soldiers who have been deployed to the region.

Who can blame the German government for growing suspicious about Turkey’s real intentions? Last year’s leaked audio of a high-level security meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry about possible military action in Syria via a false-flag operation that was leaked by the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) was a public reminder of that rift with Turkey. In the recording, senior officials including then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and MİT head Hakan Fidan discussed how Turkey could start a war with Syria, what the legal grounds would be to do so and if it would be possible to create a pretext to deliberately drag Turkey and by extension NATO into a war with Syria. They also discussed a false-flag operation by having mortars firing into Turkey from Syria to ostensibly create the legal grounds for a war.

In fact, there is widespread speculation that Turkish Islamists might have had a hand in deadlier attacks that were described as war crimes and previously falsely blamed on the al-Assad regime. Perhaps more damaging details about the shady businesses in which the Islamist rulers in Turkey have been engaging will emerge in the future. In fact, Erdoğan’s anti-German remarks in recent days have possibly more to do with possible revelations of his clandestine schemes rather than the sheltering of graft prosecutors who escaped to Germany from Erdoğan’s persecution and witch-hunt.

Turkey has come to a “make or break” point under the Islamist regime that effectively staged a coup by shelving the Constitution, suspending the rule law and trampling fundamental rights. If Erdoğan gets his wish via early elections to continue ruling this nation of 78 million people in an unchecked and unrestrained fashion, and therefore ensures the continuation of the same approach with radical and violent religious groups, we are likely to see a more serious rupture in relations with not only Germany but also other allies and partners across the world. http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/abdullah-bozkurt/islamists-risk-rupture-in-turkeys-ties-with-germany_396748.html