Federal prosecutors in Germany have charged a Turkish national with espionage, alleging he spied on a group of Turkish nationals who fled a political crackdown initiated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and provided information on them to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), German media reported on Friday.
German federal prosecutors have filed charges against Mehmet K., a Turkish citizen, accusing him of acting as an agent for Turkey’s MİT.
The indictment highlights how Turkey’s efforts to suppress dissent extend beyond its borders, targeting members of the faith-based Gülen movement and other critics of President Erdoğan who are in exile.
The Gülen movement, inspired by late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Erdoğan government of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in 2016, a claim the movement denies. Since then, Turkey has carried out a sweeping crackdown, arresting thousands and prompting tens of thousands to flee abroad, including to Germany, which is home to one of the largest Turkish diasporas.
According to the German media reports, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Mehmet K. sent anonymous reports to the Turkish police between September 2018 and August 2021. The reports included contact details and personal information about individuals in the Düren region of North Rhine-Westphalia, whom he identified as members of the Gülen movement, a group Turkey labeled a terrorist organization shortly before the 2016 coup attempt.
Much of the international community rejects Ankara’s narrative on the coup attempt and does not recognize the Gülen movement as an illegal organization, let alone a terrorist group.
According to German authorities, Mehmet K. acted on behalf of MİT and provided information aimed at assisting Ankara’s efforts to track and monitor exiled opponents. While Mehmet K. remains free pending trial, the charges mark another instance of alleged foreign intelligence operations targeting political dissidents on German soil.
Political exiles in Europe, most of whom are refugees, say they are not safe from Erdoğan’s reach. Reports of surveillance, harassment and even attempts to kidnap or assassinate dissidents abroad have alarmed rights organizations and European governments.
The Foundation for Dialogue and Education (SDuB), a group representing the Gülen movement in Germany, condemned the alleged espionage, describing it as an assault on democratic values.
“The alleged espionage against individuals who seek refuge and safety in Germany is an attack on their fundamental rights, on our democratic values and on the rule of law that defines our society,” said Hilal Akdeniz, SDuB’s managing director, in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.
Turkey’s long-standing crackdown has also targeted Kurdish activists and other political opponents of Erdoğan’s government. Observers note that espionage cases such as Mehmet K.’s expose a growing trend of authoritarian regimes leveraging diaspora networks and foreign intelligence to stifle dissent abroad.
The trial, to be in a court in Düsseldorf, will likely draw significant attention from international human rights groups, given its implications for the safety of political exiles and the integrity of host countries like Germany.
Following the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
Turkey was ranked 117th among 142 countries in the rule of law index published by the World Justice Project in October, maintaining its 2023 ranking.