More than 600 Turkish civil servants have applied to the German authorities for political asylum since the beginning of the year due to harassment following a failed coup attempt in Turkey. This was reported on Saturday by the Funke media group, citing data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to official statistics from the law enforcement agency, from January to mid-September 2017, 250 diplomatic passport holders and 380 high-ranking government officials applied for refugee status.
Applications for asylum from this category of citizens began to arrive after the failed coup attempt in Turkey last summer. Ankara believes that the alleged organizers of the putsch are hiding, including in Germany.
On July 15, 2016, a group of soldiers and officers of the Turkish Armed Forces attempted a coup d’état. The main confrontation unfolded in Istanbul and Ankara. 250 people died, not counting the putschists, more than 2 thousand were injured. Ankara accuses the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in the United States since 1999, and the FETO organization associated with him of preparing the putsch and implementing these plans.
