In the current year, the Federal Public Prosecutor has already initiated eight investigations on suspicion of secret service agent activity in accordance with Section 99 of the Criminal Code (as of July 19). In 2021, the federal prosecutor's office opened a total of 24 investigations against suspected agents from foreign countries. This emerges from the answer of the federal government to a written question from the left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to WELT.
Turkey is still one of the countries whose espionage activities concern the federal prosecutor the most. In the past year, seven espionage proceedings – and thus almost one in three – were opened against suspected Turkish agents. In 2022, investigations into suspected work for a Turkish secret service were launched in one case.
In mid-July, a Turkish agent was sentenced to one year and nine months on probation by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. He had confessed to having collected information about supporters of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK and the Gülen movement since 2018 and passed it on to the Turkish secret service. The man was arrested last September after hotel employees in Düsseldorf found a live gun on him. 100 elite police officers from the SEK were deployed during the access.
According to the Federal Government's response, Turkey is also making frequent use of the opportunity to disseminate search requests via the international investigative authority Interpol. In total, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) submitted 1,227 Interpol search requests in the current year. Of these, 203 requests and thus more than 15 percent came from Turkey. In previous years, the proportion had always been in the single-digit percentage range. In 2021 there were 4,203 Interpol searches, 291 of them from Turkey.
In the past, Turkey has repeatedly been accused of using Interpol to persecute opposition figures and critics abroad.
Dagdelen, Chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, calls on the federal government to change course towards Ankara. "It is more than questionable to court Turkish President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Baerbock in such a way, while Turkey is one of the busiest actors in espionage in Germany and at the same time is increasingly using the Interpol search requests to track down opposition members who have fled," said Dagdelen.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) will travel to Istanbul for talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu before continuing to the capital Ankara. Dagdelen criticizes: "In view of the self-imposed claims in terms of foreign policy based on human rights, green foreign policy seems more than mendacious."
Talks with the opposition are also on the agenda for Baerbock's trip to Turkey.
