There has been no letup in the aggressive, clandestine spying activities by Turkish agents on German territory that target critics and opponents of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a secret communiqué obtained by Nordic Monitor.
The communiqué reveals how Turkish spies operate in Germany under diplomatic cover and conduct illegal operations on foreign soil to collect information and pass it on to the foreign ministry in Ankara.
Dated February 11, 2022, the communiqué was signed by Erdoğan Kartal, deputy head of the counterterrorism department at the Security General Directorate (Emniyet), Turkey’s main law enforcement agency.
It mentioned recent intelligence transmitted by the foreign ministry, referred to only as Institution V to mask its origin, on February 8 to the Emniyet about a private meeting allegedly planned to be held by senior members of the Gülen movement, a group that is opposed to Erdoğan’s oppressive regime in Turkey.
The intelligence specifically mentioned Mustafa Yeşil, a leading critic of the Erdoğan government, as the target of the spying activity. Yeşil, a dual British-Turkish national, was president of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) until the Erdoğan government unlawfully shut it down in 2016 and seized its assets.
He had to leave Turkey to avoid imprisonment on fabricated charges after an unprecedented crackdown on the free, independent and critical media in the country.
Source: Nordic Monitor