BERLIN: German prosecutors announced an investigation on Tuesday into claims that Turkish agents are spying on alleged followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen in Germany.

The probe came as a German state minister accused Turkey of the “unacceptable” espionage against supporters of Gulen, blamed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a failed coup attempt last year.

The claims open a new front in the diplomatic row between Nato allies Germany and Turkey, whose relationship has been strained by a series of disputes centred on human rights issues.

“It is clear that the Turkish secret service MIT is investigating people living in Germany,” said Boris Pistorius, interior minister of the northern German state of Lower Saxony, deploring the “intensity and ruthlessness” of Turkey’s pursuit of people living abroad. “It’s intolerable and unacceptable,” he said at a press conference.

Erdogan’s government had asked Berlin to help spy on about 300 alleged Gulen supporters, Pistorius said, adding that the list was handed to Germany’s BND spy service, which turned it over to state governments.

But Pistorius’s state decided to inform the more than 10 targets in Lower Saxony, including a school and at least two companies, fearing people could suffer “retaliation” if they travelled to Turkey while unaware they were on a watch list.

Turkish authorities were acting with “something close to paranoia,” he said, adding that “all Gulen supporters are assumed to be terrorists and enemies of the state even though there is not the tiniest scrap of evidence.”

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017