By Orkhan Sattarov, head of the European Bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called espionage between friends unacceptable. She expressed disappointment over U.S. wiretapping of leading German politicians, including Merkel herself. But it seems that the rule does have an exception, espionage is acceptable only if it is done by Germans themselves.
So the German federal government failed and got into a scabrous position between both the U.S. and Turkey. Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Germany had been wiretapping Turkish politicians, businessmen and public figures since 2009. Bundesnachrichtendienst members were even intercepting telephone calls of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her successor John Kerry.
Berlin has decided to use an old tactic and keep quiet until the situation improves. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had immediate talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. The German ambassador in Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. According to Steinmeier, his Turkish counterpart was extremely outraged. Ankara has every reason for anger. It seems that Germany was using the summer residence of the German ambassador, granted by the Ottoman Empire, for intelligence operations. The residence houses the German-Turkish trade chamber, the German-Turkish art academy and a powerful machine intercepting the telephone calls of the Turkish government. The Sabah newspaper said that similar stations were operating at NATO bases in Trabzon and Mersin.
German politicians, including Cem Ozdemir, the leader of the Greens opposition party, justified the actions of the intelligence services as the vital need to be informed in the light of the Syrian civil war burning right on the Turkish border. But the problem is that the German intelligence services started spying on the Turkish government two years before the civil war in Syria erupted. Moreover, German intelligence, for example, focused on the energy projects of Turkey in Azerbaijan. The latter are not a threat to German security.
The German government did express a corrected position in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Espionage between friends is unacceptable but Turkey is a special state that cannot be compared with the UK or the U.S. Processes in Turkey are directly connected with the domestic security of Germany, considering the enormous Turkish community in Germany. Regarding espionage in the U.S., everything is clear: negotiations of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were intercepted “by accident,” within the framework of other operations, according to the official version of the German authorities.
Berlin hopes that the Turkish government will not make an international row out of it. Ankara did not release a protest note and only summoned the German ambassador for talks. The Germans, considering their own “sins”, will have to quit the role of offended allies constantly wiretapped by Americans. By the way, the American intelligence services were probably the ones to tell the media about the German spies. Washington is rather tired of hysterical German politicians and journalists complaining about U.S. spies in Germany.
The scandal over BND’s failure has a subtext in Germany. The German intelligence services did not inform the Bundestag committee for intelligence control about spying on allies. As a result, Berlin is discussing transparency of intelligence. Hans Christian Strobele of the Green Party, a member of the Bundestag committee, does not rule out that the U.S. and Turkey are not the only NATO allies Germany is spying on. Strobele mentioned Greece as another possible target.
It is high time people got used to everyone spying on everyone in global policy. Israel was wiretapping Secretary of State John Kerry’s talks during his Middle East tour. There are no real friends in politics, just interests, no innocent intelligence following the code of honour and friendship, of course. The example of the scandalous German intelligence is another good example.
“Only we can wiretap!”By Orkhan Sattarov, head of the European Bureau of Vestnik KavkazaGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel called espionage between friends unacceptable. She expressed disappointment over U.S. wiretapping of leading German politicians, including Merkel herself. But it seems that the rule does have an exception, espionage is acceptable only if it is done by Germans themselves.So the German federal government failed and got into a scabrous position between both the U.S. and Turkey. Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Germany had been wiretapping Turkish politicians, businessmen and public figures since 2009. Bundesnachrichtendienst members were even intercepting telephone calls of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her successor John Kerry.Berlin has decided to use an old tactic and keep quiet until the situation improves. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had immediate talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. The German ambassador in Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. According to Steinmeier, his Turkish counterpart was extremely outraged. Ankara has every reason for anger. It seems that Germany was using the summer residence of the German ambassador, granted by the Ottoman Empire, for intelligence operations. The residence houses the German-Turkish trade chamber, the German-Turkish art academy and a powerful machine intercepting the telephone calls of the Turkish government. The Sabah newspaper said that similar stations were operating at NATO bases in Trabzon and Mersin.German politicians, including Cem Ozdemir, the leader of the Greens opposition party, justified the actions of the intelligence services as the vital need to be informed in the light of the Syrian civil war burning right on the Turkish border. But the problem is that the German intelligence services started spying on the Turkish government two years before the civil war in Syria erupted. Moreover, German intelligence, for example, focused on the energy projects of Turkey in Azerbaijan. The latter are not a threat to German security.The German government did express a corrected position in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Espionage between friends is unacceptable but Turkey is a special state that cannot be compared with the UK or the U.S. Processes in Turkey are directly connected with the domestic security of Germany, considering the enormous Turkish community in Germany. Regarding espionage in the U.S., everything is clear: negotiations of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were intercepted “by accident,” within the framework of other operations, according to the official version of the German authorities.Berlin hopes that the Turkish government will not make an international row out of it. Ankara did not release a protest note and only summoned the German ambassador for talks. The Germans, considering their own “sins”, will have to quit the role of offended allies constantly wiretapped by Americans. By the way, the American intelligence services were probably the ones to tell the media about the German spies. Washington is rather tired of hysterical German politicians and journalists complaining about U.S. spies in Germany.The scandal over BND’s failure has a subtext in Germany. The German intelligence services did not inform the Bundestag committee for intelligence control about spying on allies. As a result, Berlin is discussing transparency of intelligence. Hans Christian Strobele of the Green Party, a member of the Bundestag committee, does not rule out that the U.S. and Turkey are not the only NATO allies Germany is spying on. Strobele mentioned Greece as another possible target.It is high time people got used to everyone spying on everyone in global policy. Israel was wiretapping Secretary of State John Kerry’s talks during his Middle East tour. There are no real friends in politics, just interests, no innocent intelligence following the code of honour and friendship, of course. The example of the scandalous German intelligence is another good examp
