Opponents of Erdogan’s government subject to surveillance by the Turkish embassy
Turkish diplomats spied on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents in Luxembourg, gathering intelligence to bring criminal cases against them.
A judicial documents confirmed that Turkish diplomats had spied on three opposition figures in Luxembourg and sent reports to the Foreign Ministry.
Turkey’s public prosecutor later used these reports in an indictment against the three opponents on terrorism charges.
According to a decision by prosecutor Adam Akenji on December 24, 2018, prosecutors in Ankara opened a separate investigation into three Turks, whose names Turkish diplomats had listed, without conclusive evidence of wrongdoing.
According to the documents, Akenji charged these Turks with “belonging to a terrorist group.”
Between 2016 and 2018, Mehmet Haluk Ilıcak, the Turkish ambassador to Luxembourg, sent reports leading to cases against Turkish dissidents to Ankara.
Opponents of Erdogan’s government abroad, particularly members of the Fethullah Gulen movement, have been subjected to surveillance, harassment, death threats, and abductions since the Turkish president decided to sacrifice the movement in his legal troubles and accused it of orchestrating the coup.
Those accused of membership in the movement were often denied consular services, such as: official authorization, birth registration, and passport cancelation. Their property in Turkey has been confiscated, and their relatives risk criminal charges.
In June, the Turkish Foreign Ministry published a report, classified as confidential, showing that the Turkish Embassy in Kosovo spied on 78 people who registered as teachers when they applied to the Consulate for various services,
The website also published documents on spying by Turkish embassies in countries, most notably Germany, on Turkish dissidents.
