MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Monday the German ambassador in Ankara to express concern over recent reports of German intelligence agencies eavesdropping on talks between officials from the United States and Turkey, both NATO member countries, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The German Ambassador in Ankara Eberhard Pohl is meeting with Turkish Deputy Undersecretary Erdogan Iscan.
“The German authorities are expected to introduce an official and satisfactory explanation about the claims to the German media and if these claims are true, then they should be ended immediately,” the ministry said.
Later the same day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesperson Christiane Wirtz did not confirm the accusations of the BND’s Turkish activities, but said that a special German parliamentary committee was examining the allegations.
The spokeswoman also noted that the BND operated in a number of countries, but refused to comment on the specifics, saying that this kind of information was classified.
On August 16, reports appeared saying that the German foreign intelligence agency (BND) had been spying on Turkey since 2009 and intercepted telephone conversations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor Hillary Clinton. The conversations were recorded “by accident,” Der Spiegel magazine reported.
On August 17, government sources confirmed to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper that the BND had been spying on one of the NATO countries, Turkey, for many years using a variety of methods, including wiretapping.
