Turkey’s soft invasion: Erdogan uses mosques in infiltrating Europe (3 – 4)

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is constructing a large number of mosques in several countries, in a desperate attempt to expand his influence.

The Directorate of Religious Affairs, widely known as Diyanet, constructed 103 in 12 countries, spending over half a billion dollars on the construction of these houses of Islamic worship.

Diyanet implemented projects in countries, such as Albania, Russia, Germany, the UK, the Philippines and others.

The mosques are Ankara’s way to play a greater role in the Islamic world.

However, this is coming at the expense of the Turkish economy which has been suffering for a long time now.

Last year, the Turkish government allocated $1.7 billion in funds for Diyanet. This is larger than the budget specified for seven Turkish ministries combined last year.

Nonetheless, European states are realizing the dangers of Erdogan’s policy, which is why they are tightening the noose around Turkish moves in them.

According to think tank, Gatestone Institute, Turkey uses Diyanet as an intelligence machine that collects information through its imams in over 38 countries.

Spying activities

According to a report published by Gatestone in October 2019, Germany was the first European state to be alerted to the dangers posed by Diyanet’s activities in it.

German authorities launched an inquiry into the spying activities of the Turkish organization in it, Gatestone said.

A member of the German parliament said also that he had obtained documents proving the presence of an international network of spies that worked for the sake of Turkey in Germany and other countries, including Australia.

The spies, he said, collect information about Turkish opposition figures in these countries in return for huge amounts of money.

Other European countries opened inquiries into spying activities by Turkish mosque imams. These countries include Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden.