Mediaboss Marketing

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan. Photo: Wikipedia.

For some Americans, concerns about Russian spying and interference in ourelections are growing, with new reports emerging nearly every day. But in Europe, officials are fighting off an even greater incursion from another country: Turkey.

Recent investigations and leaks in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands confirm ongoing efforts by Turkeys government to intimidate European-Turkish citizens suspected of having ties to Fethullah Gulen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogans one-time ally, whom he now blames for the failed coup against him last July.

Imams in Germany connected to the Turkish state, for instance, haveadmitted to spyingon teachers in German state-run schools. Teachers and parents have also been asked to spy on classes, andreport in any criticismof Erdogan or his government. In Austria, parliamentarian Peter Pilz has said there isa global spying network, with Turkish-Islamic groupssending reportson Gulen-tied organizations back to Ankara. Targets have included educational institutions, cultural centers and various NGOs. In the Netherlands, the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam hasrevoked the passportsof several Dutch-Turks thought to support Gulen. (Turkey maintains consular offices in several Dutch cities; to date, reports of passports being revoked are limited to the Rotterdam office.)

February 28, 2017 6:06 pm

Erdogans involvement in European affairs beyond Turkeys borders is nothing new. In 2008, while speaking at a rally in Cologne, Germany, he encouraged all European Turks toresist assimilation, which he called a crime against humanity. In 2013, heinterferedin a child abuse case against a Dutch-Turkish mother, when the child was given over to lesbian foster parents. And last year, he called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel toprosecute a German comedianwho had written a song critical of him.

But the latest efforts indicate an even greater bravado, says Elise Steilberg, a Dutch columnist who frequently writes on Turkish politics. The clearer it has become that Erdogan aims at a one-man-rule, and that in working toward his goal of constitutional change he wont hesitate to use unconventional means, the more obvious it has also become that he will do anything to get as many European Turks behind him as possible, she said in a recent email. Erdogan is now openly using all available channels to increase his influence within Europe.

The Dutch passport situation is a salient example of this effort. Both dual Dutch-Turkish citizens and Turkish citizens with residency permits have reported that their passports were confiscated at the Rotterdam office. In each case, they were said to have ties to Gulen, to Kurdish groups, or to journalists and others critical of the Turkish government.

For dual citizens, this is bad enough, but those with only Turkish citizenship are rendered stateless by such a move.Some have arguedthat this action represents a flagrant violation of United Nations conventions, but Turkey is not a signatory to those conventions.

There is, however, an option offered to those whose passports are revoked, reports Dutch newspaperTrouw, which first broke the story. To obtain a replacement, they must travelto Turkey. On arrival, they areheld in custody, effectively imprisoned, until they can plead their case in court a process that can take six months. In one particularly disturbing case described inTrouw, a Turkish woman was forced to relinquish her passport because her husband is a Gulenist. She is not.

But Ankara has not stopped at the door of its consulates. With Dutch elections set forMarch 15, Turkey isallegedly paying imamsin the Netherlands to urge Dutch-Turks to vote for the anti-integration Denk (Think) party, led by Tunahan Kuzu and Seluk Ozturk, both of whom are Turkish-born. Among Denks objectives: a culture of acceptance rather than integration, the creation of a racism register, and the formation of a racism police. Inan interviewwithElsevier,Dutch Turkish Council Director Sefa Yurukel described the vote Denk messages distributed by the imams as containing the typical arguments of Islamists. Further, he said that Denk likely enjoys support from the Diyanet, a Turkish government body that oversees religious affairs in Turkey and among the Turkish people worldwide.

It is just that sort of effort to monitor and manipulate the behavior of Turkish citizens, even those who do not live in Turkey, that has Steilberg most concerned. While of course all countries spy on one another, she says, the idea of civilians spying on civilians is especially chilling.

Already the Dutch have experienced some of the worst of this, as when Twitter users in the Netherlandsreported the anti-Erdogan tweetsof Dutch-Turkish columnist Ebru Umar. Umar, who was in Turkey at the time, was immediately arrested, and was not permitted to return to the Netherlands for several weeks. She was eventually released only thanks to the intervention of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

As such government intervention becomes increasingly intertwined with religious manipulation and intrigue, the reaches of Turkeys growing theocracy into European culture seems an imminent, and ever-expanding, threat.

More:
Erdogan Critics Beware: Turkey Is Watching - Algemeiner