Referendum Inflames Concerns Over Turkey’s Grip in Germany<br />Erdogan added that There is discrimination against Muslim communities here,<br />Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, recently held urgent meetings with Turkish community leaders, worrying aloud<br />that 20 to 30 years of "successful work at living together can get broken." Mr. Erdogan and his associates hurled charges of Nazism at leaders in Germany and the Netherlands after those countries, sometimes citing sudden security concerns, banned rallies by Turkish ministers ahead of Sunday’s vote.<br />that The Turkish government is increasingly following a course that leaves little room for discussion,<br />Yet it is what lies beneath the surface these days<br />that concerns both Germans and Turks as Turkey prepares to vote on Sunday in a referendum that could vastly expand the powers of its already authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose reach into Germany — both open and concealed — has become an increasing point of friction.<br />movement for Kurdish independence, Turkey has handed German officials dossiers with the names<br />of more than 300 people in Germany whom Ankara sees as working against Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey.<br />The Germans have accused some imams sent by Turkey of spying on Turks living in Germany<br />and of denouncing individuals and institutions critical of the president — right down to kindergartens.<br />Such spying, the Germans said, has allowed the Turkish government to track down, detain<br />and harass their targets’ families and associates back home in Turkey as part of a sweeping purge of Erdogan opponents.
