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Turkey Recalls Clerics, Denies Wrongdoing in Germany Spy Case
[An Nahar] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's religious affairs agency said Friday it had recalled six holy mans from Germany for exceeding their authority but lashed out at German police for raiding the homes of preachers suspected of spying for Ankara. The Diyanet agency's chief Mehmet Gormez vehemently denied there had been any wrongdoing by the holy mans, saying his organization was the target of a defamation campaign. German police this week raided the homes of four Turkish Moslem holy mans suspected of spying for President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's government on the movement of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , whom Ankara blames for a coup bid last year. The imams, who were not named, are accused of reporting to Diyanet on Turkish followers of Gulen, through the Turkish consulate in Cologne ...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there... "The holy mans did not engage in any illegal act," Gormez told news hounds in Ankara, adding that information had been shared with Germany. But he said: "Six holy mans who were evaluated to have exceeded their authority were sent back to their posts in Turkey." This was "to maintain the mutual trust between two countries and as a gesture of goodwill," Gormez added. He emphasized that they had never participated "in any act of intelligence-gathering or espionage", but confirmed that the six recalled included the four holy mans whose homes were raided. Gormez indicated that they had already been recalled before the raids took place, slamming the police actions as subject to "political and media pressure." He expressed hope that German officials would help in "sensibly ending this unreasonable and pointless process." Gormez gave no details on how the recalled holy mans had exceeded their authority. German police made no arrests in the raids but confiscated written material and data storage devices. German media said imams belong to Ditib, an organization controlled by Ankara that manages some 900 mosques or religious communities in Germany. Diyanet sends holy mans to work in its mosques. The range of its influence has on occasion caused controversy in Germany, as with similar organizations in the Netherlands and Austria. The raids came at a time of high tension between Ankara and Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... 's government repeatedly criticizing the scale of the crackdown in the wake of the July 15 failed coup. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is heading to Germany at the weekend and is expected to meet Merkel. Posted by: Fred 2017-02-18 |
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