Tuba Sarıaltın, former deputy head of the Union of European Turkish Democrats’ (UETD) women’s branches in Germany’s Bavaria region, who also works voluntarily for a refugee foundation, is collecting intelligence about Turkish families seeking asylum in Germany in order to report them to Turkish authorities, her Twitter messages have revealed.
In a series of messages from her Twitter account on Sunday, Sarıaltın wrote how she was outraged after learning that a Turkish family at a camp where she helps refugees and asylum seekers had links to “FETÖ,” a derogatory term used by the Turkish government and its supporters to refer to the faith-based Gülen movement.
“God damn you, Germany! As if it was not enough for you to support PKK supporters, now you are supporting FETÖ supporters. I swear to God that I have just understood how German racists felt. Now, will they live on the taxes I pay? I still cannot compose myself due to anger,” Sarıaltın wrote in a series of tweets.
In other messages, she also asked her followers what action she should take against this family. Some of her followers advised her to report them to the Turkish Consulate General in Munich.
The UETD is known for its affiliation with the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
Thousands of people from Turkey, some of whom are affiliated with the Gülen movement, have sought asylum in Germany due to an ongoing crackdown on the followers of the movement in Turkey.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Despite Gülen and the movement having denied the accusation, Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.