Turkey has recalled the head of a key religious organisation in The Netherlands after he informed Ankara about Dutch citizens believed to oppose the Turkish government, the Dutch foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Handing over such information "is an undesirable and unacceptable form of interference in the lives of Dutch citizens by a diplomatic representative," Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in a letter to parliament.
'LONG ARM OF ANKARA'
The Netherlands said on December 14, it would challenge every instance of the "long arm" of Ankara extending to its territory, after a report the Turkish embassy had sent home a list of Dutch Turks who might have sympathized with July's failed coup.
According to Dutch media, Yusuf Acar, the representative for Turkey's powerful Diyanet religious affairs directorate and a member of embassy staff, had been gathering information on suspected sympathisers of the alleged mastermind of Turkey's failed July coup.
Ankara accused US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen and his cult members of playing a key role in the coup.
DENIED SPYING ON PEOPLE
And last week Acar was quoted by the daily De Telegraaf saying he had indeed collected information, but denied spying on people. Acar told De Telegraaf that he had assembled the list from publicly available sources in his capacity as an employee of the Turkish Embassy, and not as leader of the religious affairs directorate, the Diyanet.
"I drew up a list based on information available on the internet," he said.
The list is said to include several members of the Christian Democratic party CDA, which has a large Turkish membership.
The Dutch foreign minister summoned Turkey's ambassador in The Hague after a report in De Telegraaf newspaper citing Yusuf Acar, who is both a diplomat and the chairman of the Dutch arm of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs, as acknowledging he had compiled the list of "Gulenists".
In a statement, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Telegraaf report was "worrying."
'DIPLOMATIC STATUS OF DIYANET IS PROBLEMATIC'
"In addition, we are going to engage with the Turkish authorities and the Diyanet organization in Ankara. That's part of our policy of challenging every incident that concerns the "long arm" with our Turkish counterparts."
Koenders said that "if true, that means the combination of a diplomatic status with the chairmanship of Diyanet is problematic."
DİYANET GATHERS INTELLIGENCE IN 38 COUNTRIES
Following the revelations, Koenders said in his letter he had summoned the Turkish ambassador for talks and they reached "a mutual agreement to withdraw" Acar from The Netherlands.
In early December, Turkish media reported that the Diyanet had gathered intelligence on Gülen supporters in 37 countries across Europe and Asia as well as in Australia.
The Directorate of Religious Affairs used reports from imams, mosque officials, religious coordinators and religious services counselors in its work, the media said.
In August, Turkish state news agency Anadolu has published an article listing companies and organisations in the Netherlands which it says are allied to the Gülen, leading prime minister Mark Rutte and Koenders to criticise Turkey for its unwanted interference in the Dutch Turkish community. The Anadolu list includes schools, cultural institutions and business organisations which it says support Gülen.
GERMANY ARRESTED ADVISOR OF ERDOĞAN
German police have arrested a 31-year-old Turkish man who is suspected of providing information on Kurds living in Germany to Turkish intelligence agencies, the German federal prosecutor's office announced on December 16. In December 2014 an advisor of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu, was detained on espionage charges in Germany and was being tried in a court of law. Prosecutors allege that Gergerlioğlu belonged to the Turkish spy agency, Milli Istihbarat Teskilat (MİT), and was a key member of Erdoğan's inner circle. He assembled information on critics of the Turkish government.
