250 Turkish diplomats seek asylum in Germany

Ankara dismisses 45 more judges, prosecutors

BERLIN: More than 250 Turkish diplomats, government employees and their family members have filed for political asylum in Germany, Berlin said on Monday, amid a bitter row between the two Nato allies.

Germany’s interior ministry said 151 of the asylum applications came from Turks holding diplomatic passports while the other 111 were from people with passports issued to other government employees and their dependants.

The ministry did not specify how many of the requests came from Turkish military personnel stationed at Nato bases.

"The asylum applications will be treated on a case-by-case basis ... and decided according to the law," a ministry spokeswoman said during a regular press conference.

The wave of requests for safe haven follows last July’s failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a subsequent crackdown, which has seen more than 100,000 people arrested or dismissed from their posts over alleged links to the plotters or to Kurdish militants.

Berlin has emerged as a strident critic of Ankara’s crackdown, voicing concerns over civil liberties in the country.

Erdogan’s government has accused US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen of having orchestrated the putsch.

Berlin says Turkey’s intelligence service is also watching alleged Gulen followers in Germany, which has a large Turkish expatriate community.

Turkey, meanwhile, has accused Germany and other EU countries of "Nazi" practices for banning campaign events by its ministers in the lead-up to an April 16 referendum campaign on extending the president’s power.

Meanwhile, Turkey dismissed 45 more judges and prosecutors on Monday as part of investigations into last July´s failed coup, the state-run Anadolu agency said, meaning around 4,000 members of the judiciary have now been purged.

Turkish authorities have detained, sacked or dismissed more than 113,000 people from the police, military, public service, judiciary and elsewhere since the abortive coup over suspected ties to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the putsch.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied the charge and condemned the coup.