Is it only Germany that is spying on Turkey?

German Ambassador to Ankara Eberhard Pohl was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Aug. 18 following media reports claiming German secret services have been eavesdropping on Turkey for some time. The Turkish Foreign Ministry asked for an explanation from the ambassador and said in a public statement that it would be “grave” if even only part of the media reports were true.

The claims were first reported by Der Spiegel and then the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Allegedly, electronic espionage on Turkey was disclosed in the documents seized from a German intelligence officer, who had been interrogated by German counter-intelligence upon suspicions of spying for the United States. The interrogation was a part of a wider probe following last year’s scandal about U.S. intelligence eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which caused a chill between Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German exterior intelligence service, has been spying on Turkey because of domestic developments in Turkey posing a threat to Germany’s national security.

The report mentions the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the activities of other religious, left-wing and right-wing groups in Germany as a justification for this unacceptable spying on a NATO ally, just as Germany had been – rightfully – complaining about American espionage on itself.

Almost 5 percent of Germany’s population of 82 million is of Turkish origin. Since the 1960s, “guest workers” from Turkey have been contributing to the German economic miracle and living there. Every political and religious grouping in Turkey has...