In response to the Spiegel report to BND espionage against Turkey Ankara has asked the German ambassador to the conversation. The government requires elucidation.

The Turkish government has asked the German ambassador to the conversation because of the supervision by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said in Berlin on Monday, the ambassador in Ankara, Eberhard Pohl, had assembled to a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The meetings were held in a friendly atmosphere.

“There was no express summons,” Shepherd said. The Turkish side had asked for the interview and requested clarification on the reports of the MIRROR. Accordingly, the German foreign intelligence service BND monitors the NATO partner Turkey for years.

The Turkish government fluctuates between anger and caution. A report obtained by SPIEGEL, after which the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) the NATO allies Turkey monitors for years and runs from 2009 as the official education goal in the current “job profile” of the federal government, irritated Ankara. At the same time Germany is an important partner of Turkey, you do not want to criticize too harsh.

BND Affair Turkey:Germany’s behavior “totally unacceptable”

Appropriate care is the reaction. As the Foreign Office confirmed a Turkish diplomat in Ankara that Pohl had been “asked to interview” on Monday the Foreign Ministry. You wanted to speak with him on the subject of espionage, he explained upon request by SPIEGEL ONLINE. Undersecretary Erdogan Iscan Pohl had made ​​”the concern of Turkey” clearly. He did not mention further details, but stressed that it had taken place in “friendly atmosphere”.

In a statement released later, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara announced that the report has years of espionage of the BND should prove to be accurate, be it “absolutely unacceptable”. “We expect an official and complete explanation of the German government about what German media report.” And if there really German espionage activities in Turkey, would be “stopped immediately” this.

The German Embassy in Ankara, meanwhile, sought to downplay the matter. A “summons” did not exist, it would have been a clearer signal in the diplomatic escalation level, as it was actually on Monday between Pohl and Iscan the conversation.

BND Affair Turkey:”Random” Overheard

German politicians have justified the spying. The Green Party Trittin said the “Berliner Zeitung”, he advised in the debate about the work of the secret to “less self-pity, more education and better their own counterintelligence”. Even Union politician Wolfgang Bosbach (CDU) defended the Espionage: The BND had probably “good reasons” for the Spähaktion.

The BND heard according to SPIEGEL information “at random” and at least one satellite phone call led the Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013 from. It had landed in the monitoring network of the BND that this has stretched over the Middle East.

The same is done a year ago with a phone call from Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, writes Der Spiegel. For this purpose, said a BND spokesman on request: “The United States was and is no enlightenment goal.” These kinds recordings should come about by chance, they would be deleted immediately.