Al Jazeera News :
Germany and Turkey are caught up in a fresh row after a rally backing outlawed Kurdish fighters in Turkey was held in Frankfurt and a top German intelligence official made controversial comments on last summer’s failed Turkish coup.
The relations between the two countries are already tense after some German states cancelled and banned political rallies planned by visiting Turkish politicians in the run-up-to a key referendum in Turkey.
Turkish citizens in Turkey and abroad will decide on April 16 if they want a set of constitutional changes to significantly expand presidential powers.
Turkish officials have been further angered after Bruno Kahlmade, the German foreign intelligence chief, said over the weekend that Turkey “failed to convince” Germany that the organisation of Fethullah Gulen was directly behind last year’s coup attempt.
Turkey accuses Gulen, a religious leader who lives in self-imposed exile in the US, of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt. About 300 people, vast majority of them civilians, were killed across Turkey after rebel soldiers attempted to overthrow the government, bombing state buildings and killing civilians and security forces.
