A thousand Turkish diplomats, civil servants seek asylum in Germany

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – German authorities on Sunday revealed that 288 holders of Turkish diplomatic passports and 771 Turkish “green” (civil service) passports had applied for asylum in Germany over the last 18 months.

Berlin’s Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said the count included the applicants’ children, adding that the figure did not include asylum-seeking Turkish soldiers, according to the country’s public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Germany has separately granted asylum to scores of high-ranking Turkish soldiers previously serving at NATO installations there until Ankara dismissed and ordered them back home.

Almost all asylum-seekers were accused by the administration of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of having taken part or supported the July 2016 coup attempt against his rule, DW suggested.

Ankara holds followers of the US-exiled Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen’s once powerful movement responsible for mounting the failed coup.

The Turkish state has since expelled some 150,000 civil servants and jailed over 50,000 people over alleged ties with Gulenists.

Only this year, over 1,400 people had applied for asylum up to the end of February.

In total, 15,654 Turkish citizens had sought political refuge in Germany since 2016, BAMF reported.

The German protection of alleged anti-government Turkish nationals has deeply strained ties between the two countries.

In the face of German rejection to extradite those wanted, Erdogan repeatedly charged Chancellor Angela Merkel with “harboring terrorists,” and in his criticism went so far as to label her administration as an “enemy.”

German authorities in the past two years launched investigations into individuals allegedly tracking Kurdish and Turkish dissenters on behalf of the Turkish intelligence services.

Human rights organizations, opposition and Kurdish parties in Turkey, Gulenists, and UN bodies have documented “grave” rights violations and widespread torture in Turkish prisons.

The release of German figures on Turks fleeing the Turkish government coincides with a brewing crisis between Ankara and the small Balkan nation of Kosovo.

This week, six Turkish teachers working at a Gulenist-run private school in Pristina were arrested, promptly deprived of their Kosova residence permits, and deported to Turkey by high-ranking officials operating outside the knowledge of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Upon the revelation of the affair that took place secretly, Haradinaj fired his Interior Minister and chief of intelligence for cooperating with Ankara without his knowledge.

Erdogan on Saturday threatened Haradinaj and said the Kosovar PM would “pay the price” for sacking officials working with Ankara.

Turkey is going through multiple crises with neighbors, Arab Gulf countries, its Western allies led by the US, and is in a conflict with the Kurds home and abroad as a crackdown on opposition groups continues to unravel.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany