Interfaith dialogue

German authorities are investigating 20 Turkish citizens on suspicion of conducting espionage in Germany, a newspaper reported on April 6.

Die Welt said it received the information in an official government response to a question about the issue filed by Sevim Dağdelen, a German lawmaker with the hard left party Die Linke.

Turkish officials provided additional information about people they believe to have links to terrorist groups to a German delegation visiting Turkey, Interior Ministry sources said April 4. 

Turkey will not break with the West, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said April 5, adding that Ankara wanted to enhance relations between the two parties.

The state-run Turkish Radio and Television Channel (TRT) on April 1 apologized for "mistakenly broadcasting" a song whose lyrics were written by the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of masterminding the failed July 2016 coup attempt.

An April's Fools Day advertisement by Turkey's largest food company, Ülker, triggered panic on social media amid accusations that the video heralded a military coup.

The commercial was broadcast online on March 31, 2017, and describes the bad sides of being a younger sibling and says "time for revenge" is near.

A total of 262 asylum requests from Turkish citizens who have worked as diplomats or soldiers are currently being reviewed by Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Der Spiegel reported on April 1.

According to Der Spiegel, the BAMF had not yet made a decision on any of the cases.

An American pastor who has been jailed on bogus terrorism charges in Turkey for more than five months is pleading with President Trump to help secure his release.
“I plead with my government — with the Trump Administration — to fight for me,” Andrew Brunson wrote in a letter to the Trump administration from his jail cell near Izmir.

Five members of the judiciary accused of using the ByLock messaging app have been returned to their duties after a Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) examination determined that their internet passwords had been cracked by actual ByLock users.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the wife of a jailed American pastor, Andrew Brunson, in the Turkish capital Ankara late on March 30, a State Department official said March 31.

Brunson is a missionary who has been held in Turkey since October 2016 on charges of being part of a terrorist organization, according to news reports.

German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) reports that Turkish secret agents are operating on a wide scale in Germany and across other European countries. Citing a Kurdish activist called Yuksel Koc, who is currently living in hiding in Germany fearing for his life from the Erdogan government, the report claims that Koc and two German MPs are on the hit list of Turkish intelligence services.