Photo Gallery Targeting the Gülen Network
Documents viewed by SPIEGEL and its partners in the European Investigative Collaborations provide evidence that Turkish embassies around the world have been monitoring people and institutions who are believed to have ties with the Gülen movement, headed by Fethullah Gülen, a former confidant of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergogan.
Erdogan (pictured here) claims that the Gülen movement infiltrated Turkish state institutions and was responsible for the failed July 2016 coup attempt.
The Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Most of Turkey's diplomatic outposts abroad willingly obliged Ankara's request for information about possible Gülen movement sympathizers.
Gülen himself has lived in exile in the United States since 1999. Erdogan in recent months has repeatedly demanded his extradition to Turkey to stand trial.
In recent weeks, news also emerged that imams connected with the organization DITIB, which operates Turkish mosques across Germany, have been spying on members of their community suspected as being Gülen movement adherents. Turkey's intelligence agency has even provided a dossier about suspected Gülen movement followers to its German counterpart, the BND, suggesting it believes the spying is legal.
In Germany, Volker Beck of the Green Party filed a legal complaint about the spying, and it is now being investigated by the country's Federal Prosecutor.
