Turkey has called on Germany for clarification, after a confidential government document leaked to the German press referred to the country as a “central platform for action for Islamist groupings”.
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The official German document, seen by ARD, said the “Islamisation” of Turkey’s domestic and foreign policy has made the country a hub for “Islamist” groups.
The assessment of Turkey, based on German intelligence reports, was cited in a classified response from the Interior Ministry in Berlin to the opposition Left Party, according to ARD.
It said that German officials had acknowledged Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for militants fighting Bashar al-Assad in Syria and that the Turkish president has an “ideological affinity” with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood produced the first Egyptian president elected in free democratic elections after the resignation of aged dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is shunned as a terrorist group by the European Union and the U.S.
Tensions between Ankara and the West have been aggravated by the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15.
The German government said that it would not comment on content that is classified. Turkey’s president has said as much in the past, telling USA news host Charlie Rose in a 2011 interview that “I don’t see Hamas as a terror organization”.
The claims in question are “a new indication of the distorted mindset which has been attempting to weaken our country by means of [attacking] our president and our government”, said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a written statement released on August 17. Turkey is incensed by what it sees as an insensitive response from Western allies to the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed.
He complained that no foreign leader had visited Turkey after the coup attempt, while France and Belgium received visits in solidarity after attacks there.
At the same time, Roth said it was important to keep open channels of communication with Turkey, which would remain an important partner given the refugee crisis, and because of the presence of over 3 million people in Germany of Turkish descent. It cites increasing ties between Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party and other regional Islamist groups, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Syria’s opposition and Palestinian militant movement Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and Israel, ARD reported Tuesday. “It is obvious that, behind these claims, there are some political circles in Germany whose double-standard manners in the fight against terror, including the bloody actions of the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] terror organization, which continues to target Turkey”, read the statement.
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“As a country which sincerely fights against terror of every sort whatever its source, Turkey expects that its other partners and allies act in the same way”.
