Turkish AKP MP linked to Osmanen Germania gang in Germany
Chase Winter
December 14, 2017
An investigative report links Ankara to a boxing gang in Germany accused of going after opponents of the Turkish government. The report ties a Turkish MP close to President Erdogan to violent criminal activity.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
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A Turkish parliamentarian has provided money to a boxing gang in Germany to buy weapons, organize protests and go after critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, German media reported on Wednesday.
Metin Kulunk, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and close confidant of Erdogan, directly and indirectly provided money to the Turkish nationalist Osmanen Germania, according to research by Frontal 21, an investigative news program on public broadcaster ZDF and the daily Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
The investigation was based on German police phone taps and surveillance of the group leaked to the news organizations.
It suggests a relationship between Osmanen Germania and Kulunk, as well as the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, the AKP's European lobby and Erdogan himself.
Osmanen Germania describes itself as a boxing club and "brotherhood," but authorities have long suspected it of being involved in criminal activity and violence. It is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany.
One of Kulunk's main contacts was Mehmet Bagci, the former head of Osmanen Germania who has been in pre-trial detention in Germany since 2016. Another key figure was the group's vice president, Selcuk Sahin, who is also detained.
According to police investigations, Osmanen Germania was instructed by Kulunk to go after Kurds and critics of Erdogan living in Germany. He also allegedly organized protests against last year's Armenian genocide resolution passed by the German parliament.
German authorities consider Osmanen Germania to be a rocker-like gang similar to the Hells Angels.Image: picture alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
Going after Kurds
Phone taps indicate that Kulunk instructed Turks in Germany to "hit Kurds over the head with sticks," film the act and provide videos to the Turkish state to be used as a "deterrent" against Erdogan's critics.
Bagci bragged of "very good contacts" who could put him in touch with the MIT intelligence agency and that his men could take care of "that PKK thing," referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
The "PKK thing" was an April 2016 Kurdish demonstration in Stuttgart that led to a massive brawl between Turks and Kurds, leaving some 50 German police injured.
According to German police investigations, Bagci pledged to one of Erdogan's chief advisors that he would fight on Turkey's behalf against "terrorists" in Germany.
German authorities have for some time worried about conflict between the Ottoman Germania and Bahoz (Storm), a rival Kurdish gang.
Why are German and Turkish relations so strained?
German-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the failed coup against Turkish President Erdogan in 2016 and the crackdown that followed. DW looks at some of the key moments that soured ties between Berlin and Ankara.
Image: picture-alliance/POP-EYE/B. Kriemann
The Böhmermann affair
March 31, 2016: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed charges against German comedian and satirist Jan Böhmermann over his "defamatory poem" about the Turkish leader. German prosecutors eventually dropped the charges on October 4, 2016, but the case sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Ankara.
German lawmakers pass resolution to recognize 1915 Armenian Genocide
June 2, 2016: The resolution passed almost unanimously. In response, Turkey recalled its ambassador in Berlin and Germany's Turkish community held protests in several German cities. Turkey had repeatedly criticized the use of the term genocide to describe the Ottoman-era Armenian killings, arguing that the number of deaths had been inflated, and that Turkish Muslims also perished in the violence.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Gallup
Tensions following failed coup in Turkey
July 15, 2016: A faction of the Turkish military tried to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but ultimately failed. Ankara accused Berlin of not taking a clear stand against the coup attempt or not doing anything about exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen's organization, who Erdogan blames for orchestrating the failed coup.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Suna
Germany criticizes post-coup purge
Immediately following the attempted coup, Turkish authorities purged the army and judiciary, detaining thousands of people. The purge expanded to include civil servants, university officials and teachers. German politicians criticize the detentions. Turkish diplomats, academics and military members fled the country and applied for asylum in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Suna
Kurdish rallies in Cologne
Erdogan's post-coup crackdown has also been condemned by Kurdish protesters at several mass demonstrations in the west German city of Cologne. Often the rallies have called for the release of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey considers to be a terror group. Ankara has accused Berlin of not doing enough to stop PKK activities.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Meissner
Arrest of German citizens in Turkey
February 14, 2017: Deniz Yücel, a correspondent for the "Welt" newspaper, was taken into custody in Turkey. Other German nationals, including journalist Mesale Tolu and human rights activist Peter Steudtner were detained in Turkey for what Berlin dubbed "political reasons." Turkey accused them of supporting terrorist organizations. All three have since been released pending trial.
March 2017: A number of German localities blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies in their districts ahead of an April referendum in Turkey to enhance President Erdogan's powers. The Turkish leader then accused Germany of using "Nazi tactics" against Turkish citizens in Germany and visiting Turkish lawmakers. German leaders were not amused by the jibe, saying Erdogan had gone too far.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Berg
Spying allegations
March 30, 2017: Germany accused Turkey of spying on hundreds of suspected Gulen supporters as well as over 200 associations and schools linked to the Gulen movement in Germany. Turkish asylum-seekers have since accused officials working in Germany's immigration authority (BAMF) of passing on their information to media outlets with ties to the Turkish government.
Image: Imago/Chromeorange/M. Schroeder
Erdogan urges German-Turks not to vote for 'enemies of Turkey'
August 18, 2017: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed three of Germany's main political parties as "enemies of Turkey" and told Turks living in Germany not to vote for them in September's general election. He singled out Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), and the Greens. Merkel said Erdogan was "meddling" in Germany's election.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/AA/M. Ali Ozcan
Merkel says Turkey should not become EU member
September 4, 2017: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during an election debate that she didn't think Turkey should become a member of the European Union and said she would speak with other EU leaders about ending Ankara's accession talks. In October, she backed a move to cut Turkey's pre-accession EU funds.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Turkey's military offensive in Afrin
January 20, 2018: The Turkish military and their Syrian rebel allies launched "Operation Olive Branch" against the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in northern Syria. The move was criticized by German politicians and prompted large protests by Kurdish communities in Germany.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Kose
Journalist Deniz Yücel released from prison
February 16, 2018: Turkey ordered the release of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel after he'd been held for over a year without charge. According to Turkish state media, Yücel was released on bail from pre-trial detention. Prosecutors asked for an 18-year jail sentence for Yücel on charges of "terror propaganda" and incitement.
Image: picture-alliance/Eventpress/Stauffenberg
Özil quits
July 2018: German footballer Mesut Özil quit the national team following the fallout from his meeting with the Turkish president. Özil said he was being made a scapegoat for Germany's forgettable performance at the FIFA World Cup in Moscow because of his Turkish heritage. Erdogan praised Özil's decision and slammed the "racist" mistreatment of the footballer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Presidential Press Service
Travel ban lifted
August 2018: A Turkish court removed the travel ban on German journalist Mesale Tolu, who was arrested last year on terrorism-related charges. But the trial against Tolu, who has since returned to Germany, is set to continue. Her husband, Suat Corlu, who is facing similar charges, has been ordered to remain in Turkey.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Schmidt
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Protests, guns and punishment
In June 2016, specialists from the Hamburg criminal office observed Kulunk personally hand Bagci two envelopes in Berlin. The envelopes were believed to be full of money.
Moments later Kulunk called Erdogan and organized protests against the Armenian genocide resolution in the German parliament. Osmanen Germania participated in the protests.
The police investigations suggest Osmanen Germania has contact with the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), the AKP's external lobby group.
Böhmermann was warned, put under police protection and spent several weeks outside of Germany.
In other phone conversations with Turks living in Germany, Arin encouraged them to arm themselves, saying that he could facilitate "clean” weapons. A police report also showed that Bagci in June 2016 ordered 10 handguns from a Serbian living in Germany.
The investigative report highlights that "the long arm of Erdogan has not disappeared in Germany," said Green Party co-chair Cem Özdemir.
German criminal investigators in multiple federal states are intensely monitoring Osmanen Germania.
Critics of Turkey and pro-Kurdish organizations "are the object of Osmanen Germania's threats," Burkhard Freier, the head of the North Rhine-Westphalia's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told ZDF. "When it comes to disputes, then they don't shy away from violence."
'German deep state' operation
Kulunk did not respond to the German media requests for comment, but in a series of tweets he lambasted "fictional reports" and threats against Turks living in Europe. He also condemned threats and repression against "civil society" organizations in Germany.
"Everybody knows Germany's open and hidden support for PKK and the FETO. The German deep state's media operations are futilely trying to target me and Turkish civil society organizations to cover up their support for terrorist groups," he wrote in one of 16 tweets on the allegations. FETO refers to the movement led by Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for last year's failed coup attempt.
UETD condemned the Frontal 21 and Stuttgarter Nachrichten investigation as not reflecting the truth and amounting to "slander."
"We view this program as part of a campaign to denounce UETD and which seeks to legally marginalize and silence the critical voice of the Turkish community," UETD said in a statement.
Osmanen Germania has repeatedly denied media accusations against the group on its Facebook page. It says that detained people such as Bagci are not members, that the group no longer has a president or vice president, and that it has undergone restructuring.
