A leaked report from the German parliament’s interior committee says Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, the MIT, is among the four most active and dangerous foreign security services operating in Germany, alongside China, Russia and Iran. Berlin’s interior senator, Iris Spranger, said Ankara’s intelligence tactics have escalated sharply and now go beyond classic spying to include cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and sabotage.
The report says German lawmakers were already pressing the federal government in 2018 about the scale of Turkish espionage, which intensified after Turkey’s failed coup in July 2016. Federal prosecutors opened at least 16 criminal investigations in 2017 and 2018 alone over suspected clandestine activity for Turkish intelligence. Much of the sensitive material remained classified, including possible infiltration of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency and the use of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, DITIB, for recruitment and influence.
The document says the main targets in Germany were critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, supporters of the Turkish opposition and Kurdish activists. It also says the MIT was suspected of using the FinSpy mobile spyware made by the German firm FinFisher, which was allegedly smuggled into Turkey without export authorization.
The report adds that Turkey has also used international legal systems to pressure opponents, with nearly 600 active Interpol arrest warrants issued by Ankara and hundreds of yearly legal-assistance requests to Germany, many allegedly politically motivated. It also says dozens of German citizens, including dual nationals, were detained or denied entry in Turkey, and more than 35 were prevented from leaving the country under exit bans. The most complex section deals with the PKK network in Berlin, which the report says has about 1,100 active supporters. Although the PKK said about a year ago that it was ending armed struggle and dissolving its structure as part of a peace process, German authorities say they have seen no signs on the ground that its supporters in Berlin have moved away from terrorism.
