The Merkel government has responded to Die Linke’s written inquiry on MIT activity in Germany and said 13 investigations have been launched in 2018. But the government didn’t provide details, saying the investigations are “state secrets”.
It is not a secret anymore that Turkish intelligence service MIT, having built a network of agents through the religious institution DITIB, consulates, shell companies and Turkish banks, uses Germany as its back yard.
But the federal government led by Angela Merkel has mended fences with the Erdogan regime recently, and does not want to disclose the MIT’s illegal activities to the public. There are an estimated 6.000 MIT agents and spies in Germany, but the investigations against Turkish spies don’t go past the symbolic phase.
Die Linke recently submitted a written inquiry for the federal government to respond to about MIT activity in Germany. The government responded to the inquiry, prepared by Die Linke MPs Sevim Dagdelen, Heike Hänsel and Andrej Hunko, on September 28.
The ANF has obtained a copy of the response, where the Merkel government evaded most questions as “state secrets” or “dangerous for the wellbeing of the investigation”. The federal government stated that there have been 34 investigations on suspicion of “intelligence activity” in 2017, and 13 in 2018 until August 23. The government didn’t give details about the investigations and added that the judicial process hasn’t started for any of the investigations in 2017 or 2018.
German state officials themselves have stated that there have been assassination attempts against Kurdish politicians and opponents of the Erdogan regime several times, but MIT activity is still given a pass. Most recently, the annual intelligence report in Germany announced in July cited that the MIT uses official Turkish representation offices like consulates and embassies and DITIB’s mosques.
MIT TARGETS POLICE AND SECURITY UNITS
Just before the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Germany last week, another MIT operative had been exposed within the German security forces. Der Tagesspiegel newspaper had announced that a police officer in the Berlin Police Directorate was under investigation for working for Turkish intelligence.
The identity of the “mole” police officer, who had been relaying information about opponents of the Erdogan regime to the Turkish Embassy, hadn’t been declared. The investigation was launched a while ago, but it was leaked to the German press just before Erdogan’s visit. The MIT infiltrating German security forces as part of attempts to gather information on Kurds and Turks has been on the public agenda frequently in the last year in Germany.
Several applicants for a job opening in Germany’s domestic intelligence agency Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had been exposed as tied to the MIT. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the first institution persons fleeing the Erdogan regime would appeal to, was added to the list of German institutions the MIT infiltrated in October last year.
Turkish-German police chief Dondu Yazgan, whose ties to the MIT had been exposed by the ANF in August 2017 while she was working in the “harmony police” in Wiesbaden, Hessen, was one of the Erdogan regime’s agents. Following an investigation, Yazgan continues to work in the Hessen State Police Directorate as a low level officer.
