No regrets from Germany for spying claims

Germany shows no sign of regret over the electronic spying claims, with a senior German official saying it would not be surprising if they learn that Germany is also being spied on by the Turkish government in a similar way.

The senior German politician, who is also a member of the cabinet, did not comment on the countries included in the Mission Statement of countries that should be monitored closely, but added that he would not be surprised if Germany is also on the Turkish government’s equivalent document.

The official, who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, did not respond to the question of whether the Germany will apologize to Turkey about the claims, simply saying that “the German government is against neither Turkey nor Turkish immigrants.”

When reminded that Germany reacted harshly after the revelation that the U.S. had attempted to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the official said the two cases were “different,” which may be seen as another sign that Germany plans no apology to Turkey.

“The NSA scandal was a different case. There had been strong spying allegations. A suspect had been arrested. The Chancellor was targeted personally and her personal phone calls were intercepted,” he said.

The source denied that it would “hypocritical” for Germany to spy on Turkey, which it regards as an ally.
“We are not hypocritical. We have a lot of friends in the region such as Turkey and Israel … But the U.S., France and the U.K. are different since they are not only democratic countries, but also the ones that protected us after the Second World War against the Soviet imperialism. Our American friends also knew this. That is why we were very disappointed when we...