The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state report for 2016 was announced to the public in a press conference held in Düsseldorf. Intelligence chief for NRW, the largest state in Germany, Burkhard Freier and NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul were present.

Intelligence chief Freier stated that the Turkish intelligence’s espionage activity continues. Freier said Turkish intelligence agency MİT gathers information on opponents of the Erdoğan regime in Germany and relays it to Ankara, and stressed that at the center of the web of intelligence stands the DİTİB, Turkish state’s religious affairs institution in Germany.

“DİTİB INFORMS THE MİT OF ERDOĞAN’S OPPONENTS”

German intelligence chief for the NRW Freier stated that the opposition is reported to the MİT through imams in DİTİB mosques and that the Turkish imams were abusing their position. Freier said there have been investigations on 13 Turkish imams in NRW to date and added that some of these imams had fled to Turkey.

Even though the espionage activity of DİTİB is known, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is still not monitoring this institution. And, the German government continues to flood DİTİB with money under various projects. The German government has reduced aid for the DİTİB by 80% compared to previous years, and the planned budget for 2018 has been announced as 297.500 Euros.

NRW POLICE WARNED NOT TO TRAVEL TO TURKEY

NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul warned intelligence employees, police officers and Foreigners Bureau workers to avoid travelling to Turkey. The governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member Minister Reul said: “Mobile phones of public officers are copied in Turkish airports.”

Reul said they are in possession of concrete information on the matter and issued another warning for public officials who wish to travel to Turkey to not take their work phone with them.

Another interesting detail in the NRW report is that violent incidents between Turks and Kurds in the state have increased. Compared with 2015, there have been 4 times more political incidents between the two immigrant communities in 2016, at a total of 205. Most of these are incidents of Turkish fascists attacking Kurds.

The annual reports by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution are released on a federal level, and states prepare their own reports.