Doubts expressed by Germany's spy agency regarding the role of a U.S.-based cleric in last year's attempted coup in Turkey are proof that Germany supports the organisation behind the attempt, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan's spokesman said.
İbrahim Kalın said on Sunday those comments were proof Berlin was supporting US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen's network, which Ankara refers to as the "Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation" or "FETÖ".
"It's an effort to invalidate all the information we have given them on FETÖ. It's a sign of their support for FETÖ," Kalın said.
"Why are they protecting them? Because these are useful instruments for Germany to use against Turkey."
On Saturday, German news magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with the head of the BND foreign intelligence agency, who said the Turkish government had failed to convince it that US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen was responsible for the coup attempt.
