© Getty ImagesBekir Alboga, Secretary-General of DITIB
A Turkish Islamic group operating in Germany acknowledged that
some of its imams complied with Turkish government instructions to give Ankara tips on suspected adherents of exiled US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.Ditib, which stands for Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, is believed to have
strong ties to Diyanet (Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs), a Turkish state-run
religious affairs watchdog. Ditib previously denied its members were handing over information on Gulen supporters in Germany to the Turkish government.
In a comment to
Rheinische Post on Thursday, however, the secretary-general of Ditib, Bekir Alboga, appeared to have changed his tune, admitting that although "the written instructions of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs were not addressed to Ditib...
some Ditib imams wrongly followed them." Stressing that such overzealousness on the part of Ditib members was not encouraged, Alboga stated that they "deeply regret this mishap" and have already discussed the issue with the Diyanet.
In December,
Ditib dismissed reports that it was receiving orders from the government to gather intelligence on potential supporters of Gulen, who the Turkish government considers to be the mastermind behind the failed military coup attempt in July of last year. Gulen, who has lived in the US since the late 1990s, has
repeatedly denied allegations of his involvement in plotting to overthrow Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Erdogan has called on Washington to speed up the extradition of Gulen, formally filing a request for the procedure in August.
The movement led by Gulen is commonly referred to in the Turkish pro-government media as the
'Gulenist Terror Organization' or 'FETÖ.' Although the movement does not have an official name, it is
known as Hizmet among followers. In December, Hizmet spokesman in Germany Ercan Karakoyun claimed that Gulen supporters are forced to
avoid places of worship attended by Ditib, saying it has become
a tool of the Turkish government.
"Thousands of people from the Hizmet movement avoid mosques they contributed to for 30 years because of Erdogan's instrumentalization of DITIB," Karakoyun
told Deutche Welle, accusing Ditib imams of "adding fuel to the fire." Ditib said that its mosques "are places of spirituality, not political polemic," according to Deutsche Welle.
'Confidence at stake'Alboga's characterization of the snooping as an unfortunate accident did not sit well with German politicians, as German commissioner for integration Aydan Özoguz urged Ditib to
take "clear steps to get loose from Ankara." The matter, he said, "is currently being examined by the
office of the General Prosecutor," and the outcome of the investigation should be followed by
"clear consequences," according to
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "A lot of confidence is at stake here," he added.
Volker Beck, an opposition MP from the Green Party, did not mince words. "DITIB's attempt to
explain everything as a 'mishap' is hardly believable when taking into account the
dependence of DITIB on the Diyanet in Ankara and the role of the Turkish embassy and consulate in directing the association and its structures," he said, as cited by Deutsche Welle.
In December, Turkish media reported that the
Diyanet was collecting information on members of the Gulenist movement in 38 countries in Europe, Asia, and Australia. The government was reportedly receiving
intelligence data mainly from imams.Turkey has also been accused recently of meddling in the
internal affairs of the Netherlands, after it was discovered by Dutch media that an attaché at the Turkish Embassy in The Hague, who also served as chairman of the local Diyanet branch,
sent a list of supposed Gulen supporters to the Turkish government. The embassy subsequently called the accusations "incorrect," claiming that the attaché was acting without the knowledge of the ambassador.
Comment: Gulen coup involvement? Ankara Gulen obsession? If imams are tapped as spies for Erdogan, what else are they looking for? And, why is the US protecting Gulen unless he might actually and factually implicate the US in the Turkish coup.