Ankara Denies Any Link Between 3 Turkish Suspects And MİT

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has denied that three Turkish men arrested in Germany on charges of spying on German-Turks for Turkish intelligence services have any link with Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

"These people have no link with MİT or with the Prime Ministry's Overseas Turks Agency [YTB]," Çavuşoğlu said, responding to questions from reporters in Ankara on Friday.

He also said the Turkish consulates in Germany had been informed by German authorities and that the consuls general are following the case. He mentioned that his office is also tracking the process. Turkey's Foreign Ministry has reportedly hired an attorney to follow the case of the three arrested men.

In comments to the Hürriyet daily on Friday, Prime Ministry sources said there is no link between the three Turks who were arrested and MİT. Instead the Prime Ministry sources reportedly said these news reports originate from efforts of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) extension in Germany, which is trying to add credence to the claims, saying, “MİT organizes the Syrian opposition in Germany via the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency [TİKA] and Turks living abroad.”

On Thursday, German federal prosecutors said the three Turkish men were arrested based on the fact that they have close links with Turkey's MİT and that they are spying on their compatriots in Germany for Turkish intelligence.

Two of the suspects were identified as Muhammad Taha G. and Göksel G. They were arrested on Wednesday at Germany's Frankfurt airport. The third man, Ahmet Duran Y., was arrested at his home in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany.

According to sources, the federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe issued an arrest warrant on Nov. 11 for the three men on the accusation of having bonds with Turkey's intelligence services. Based on this decision, the Rheinland-Pfalz Public Order Department detained the suspects.

Muhammad Taha G. is accused of running the other two as agents and collecting information on Turks in Germany as well as their "organizational structures," prosecutors said in a statement.

The suspects were kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

Germany has approximately 3 million citizens who are of Turkish origin.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)