Turkey Runs Informer Network in Austria to Target Critics: MP
A senior Austrian lawmaker has accused Turkey of running an informer network via its embassy in Vienna aimed at targeting the critics of President of the Turkish regime Recep Tayyip Erdogan and promoting his policies.
On Tuesday, Peter Pilz, from the Austrian Greens party, said at a news conference that he had sent documents regarding the activities of the network, run by the umbrella group ATIB, to the police, according to Press TV.
The ATIB is headed by the religion attaché at Turkey’s embassy, Fatih Mehmet Karadas, and oversees the activities of dozens of mosques across Austria.
“The ATIB umbrella group is an instrument of hard, ruthless and, in my view, legally unacceptable Turkish government politics in Austria,” Pilz told a news conference.
Pilz noted that the Turkish government sends imams to work for the ATIB to collect information in particular about followers of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan has accused of plotting an attempted coup in Turkey last July.
The Turkish government has arrested tens of thousands of people over suspected ties with the US-based cleric.
Gulen denies any involvement in last summer’s coup attempt.
Turkey wide-ranging crackdown following the coup has been criticized by Austria and other EU nations.
R.S