Turkish president denies German magazine report on MİT spying

ANKARA

DHA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s office has denied a report in a German magazine about Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) spying in the country, which it described as “fictional” and slanderous.

The Presidential Press Office stated that German magazine Focus had still not published a correction that it sent on July 9 concerning the report published on June 27.

“The person named Taha Gergerlioğlu, around whom the report is based, is neither in contact with nor has relations with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He also has no official post either,” it said in a written statement on July 15.

In late 2014, three Turks accused of spying on compatriots in Germany for the MİT were arrested by German police.

One of the men, identified in the report as Muhammed Taha G., was accused of being responsible for overseeing the other two men as agents. The two others collected information for him on Turks in Germany and their “organizational structures,” German federal prosecutors said at the time.

Erdoğan’s press office slammed Focus magazine over the report. “International law makes following the legal process of a state’s own citizens possible for consulate officials in the countries where they serve. So presenting Turkish Karlsruhe Consulate General Serhat Aksen’s following of a case at the Karlsruhe Federal Court or commenting on it as ‘attempting to influence Germany’s domestic affairs and legal system’ cannot be associated with objectivity and good will,” it stated.

The report portrayed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which are also listed as outlawed terrorist organizations by Germany, as “almost wronged,” the office also said, criticizing the fact that Turkey was presented as a state that does not observe rules.