Spiegel: Germany Has Rejected Turkey's Request for the Extradition of 80 Turkish Citizens

The German magazine Spiegel has reported that Turkey submitted a request to Germany in the spring of this year to seize the assets of supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a cleric opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but this request was rejected by German officials. According to Spiegel's report, on Saturday, September 2, Turkey's official request to block the bank accounts of Gülen supporters was submitted in April this year and included a list of 80 Turkish citizens in Germany, whom the Turkish government claims are supporters of Gülen. The report indicates that Turkey's request was rejected by the German government nearly two months ago, on the last day of June. In a formal response from the German Foreign Ministry to Turkey, it was stated that the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany found no legal basis to act against the Gülen movement and its supporters. Spiegel does not mention the names of the sources on which it based its report, and Reuters also notes that the German Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter. The report also mentions that since the beginning of this year, Turkey has submitted requests for the extradition of 53 individuals to Germany, which is roughly equal to the number it requested in 2016. Turkey has also asked Germany to limit or prohibit the political activities of Kurds and 'Gülen supporters' in the country. Following the failed coup attempt in July 2016, the Turkish government has pointed the finger at Fethullah Gülen, a cleric opposed to Erdoğan who is living in voluntary exile in the United States. Since then, the Turkish government has detained or dismissed hundreds of thousands of people, including a significant number of teachers, judicial officials, and military and police personnel. The Spiegel report comes at a time when relations between Berlin and Ankara, which have soured since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, reached their lowest point on Friday with the detention of two German citizens at Antalya airport in Turkey. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Friday in response to the detention of these two German citizens that Berlin would respond 'decisively' to Ankara's actions. In this context, Martin Schulz, the leader of the German Social Democratic Party, also called for a firm response to the Turkish government's behavior. According to German media, a total of 55 individuals with German citizenship are currently imprisoned in Turkey, 12 of whom are detained for political reasons. Among these individuals is Deniz Yücel, a German-Turkish journalist, whose imprisonment reached 200 days on Friday.