Hans-Georg Maaßen, then head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, said he did not believe anyone outside Turkey had been persuaded by Ankara’s claim that the Gülen movement was responsible for Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
“I do not think anyone outside Turkey believes that the Gülen structure is responsible for the coup attempt,” Maaßen said. “At least, I do not know anyone living outside Turkey who the Turkish government has convinced of this.”
Maaßen was serving as president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence service, at a time of growing strain between Berlin and Ankara over Turkey’s post-coup crackdown, surveillance allegations and demands targeting people accused by Ankara of links to the movement.
He described cooperation with Turkish security agencies as “problematic” and said relations between the security institutions of the two countries were “difficult, very difficult.”
Asked about allegations of “espionage among friends,” Maaßen said the intelligence world does not operate on friendship.
“In the intelligence service, there are no friends, there are partners, and the deciding factor is often the relationship of personal trust,” he said.
His comments came on the same day that three German media outlets reported that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization had handed Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service, a list of people in Germany whom Ankara accused of links to the Gülen movement.
The reports added to concerns in Germany that Turkey was trying to extend its post-coup purge beyond its borders by monitoring, naming or pressuring Turkish nationals and critics living abroad.
Source: Deutsche Welle Türkçe
