Germany turns down Turkey's request to freeze Gulen assets
Germany’s Spiegel magazine reports that the German Foreign Ministry turned down a request sent by Turkey in June to freeze Fetullah Gulen's assets in the country. Gulen is accused of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in Turkey last year.
US-based Fethullah Gulen, whose followers Turkey blames for a failed coup, shown in a still image taken from video speaking to journalists at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania July 16, 2016.
Germany has rejected a formal request from Turkey to freeze assets of members of the network of US-based congregation leader Fetullah Gulen, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.
Turkey accuses Gulen of orchestrating last year’s failed military coup, and has urged the US to deport him back to Turkey so that he can be brought to justice. Gulen has lived in self-exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, but his network of followers and assets are located in a number of countries worldwide, including Germany.
Without naming its sources, the magazine said the Turkish government had asked the Foreign Ministry in Berlin at the end of April to freeze the assets of the Gulen organisation and its members in Germany. It attached a list with 80 names, it said.
The German government officially rejected the request at the end of June, telling Ankara there were no legal grounds for Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin to crack down on the Gulen movement and its supporters, the report said.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined to comment.
The report also said that the number of Turkish extradition requests sent to Germany had jumped to 53 since the beginning of the year, already exceeding the total in the whole of 2016.
Ties between Ankara and Berlin are already strained, with Turkey accusing Germany of harbouring alleged terrorists and Germany protesting the arrest of several of its citizens in Turkey as part of the ongoing probe into Gulen’s network, dubbed locally as FETO.
Twelve German citizens are now in Turkish detention on political charges, four of them holding dual citizenship.
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Turks in Germany to vote against Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition and other major parties in the September 24 elections.
Erdogan said that Turks living in Germany should instead vote for parties that don’t treat Turkey with enmity.
His statement came after days of tension between Ankara and Berlin, particularly over comments by the German Chancellor appearing to rule out a renewal of a customs union deal between Turkey and the European Union.
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