The U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen\u2019s shadowy group FETO is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, for carrying a long secretive campaign to infiltrate state instutitons and orchestrating the foiled coup attempt in 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.<\/p>\n
But in Germany, which is home to more than 3 million Turkish immigrants, the group continues their activities without any hindrance through associations, schools and media organizations.<\/p>\n
In its reply to a parliamentary question from the opposition Left Party, which was made public on Monday, the German government has said it could not rule out that \u201cthe members of Gulen movement were involved in the coup attempt\u201d, but also argued that so far it did not receive sound evidence about FETO suspects living in Germany.<\/p>\n
Asked \u201cif the German federal government has cooperation with Gulen affiliated persons, instutitons, associations and media organizations\u201d, and \u201cwhether it has such plans for future\u201d which would necessitate federal funding, Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s government declined to give any information to the parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe subject matter of this question involves information which particularly affects the functional capability of the intelligence ogranizations and therefore we cannot provide information that can be available to the public,\u201d the government said in its written reply.<\/p>\n
It also argued that the public release of any information related to this question involves big risk of revealing the valuable \u201cintelligence contacts\u201d that should be protected.<\/p>\n
Left Party lawmaker Ulla Jelpke slammed the government for hiding information from the parliament about its cooperation with FETO-affiliated groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government views its cooperation with the associations of Gulen sect so explosive that it is refusing to give an answer arguing that doing so would effect the the functional capability of the intelligence ogranizations,\u201d she told Germany\u2019s international broadcaster DW.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that the government is cooperating with Gulen exclusively through the intelligence services,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s tolerance towards the group, and its reluctance to extradite FETO suspects to Turkey, has been a source of tension between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Since the 1990s, Gulen\u2019s shadowy group managed to build a large network in Germany, and it claims to have around 70,000 followers in the country.<\/p>\n
Around 14,000 people with suspected ties to FETO have also arrived the country, after the foiled coup attempt in Turkey, according to local reports.<\/p>\n
FETO members have tried to avoid public criticism in Germany by focusing on “interfaith dialogue” programs and sticking to \u201cmoderate\u201d messages.<\/p>\n
But former FETO members, who spoke to the German media in recent weeks, stressed that the group has a dual structure, and despite its \u201cdemocratic\u201d and \u201cmoderate\u201d image in public, it has a secretive and strict hierarchy controlled by its ideological leaders.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 10)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The German government has confirmed that its intelligence organizations were primarily responsible for contacts with groups affiliated with terrorist FETO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,118,101,14],"tags":[77496,703],"class_list":["post-61331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-hot","category-politics","category-world","tag-feto","tag-germany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}