Long criticized by Ankara for harboring members of terrorist groups it recognizes, Germany appears to be appeasing Turkey with new arrests. German police arrested three senior members of Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), authorities said on Thursday. DHKP-C is known for a string of bloody attacks in Turkey, including the murder of a prosecutor at an Istanbul courthouse on March 31, 2015.
The terrorist group’s alleged German chief Özgül E., and two other leading figures, were arrested following a lengthy investigation, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Özgül E., who is also on Turkey’s list of most-wanted terrorists, was arrested on Monday in the southwestern city of Heidelberg, according to the prosecutors. She was suspected of organizing the terrorist group’s propaganda, recruitment and funding activities across Germany, and is believed to have supplied fake passports to the members of the group. Serkan K., who had coordinated the terrorist group’s activities in northern Germany, was arrested in Hamburg on Tuesday. Prosecutors said a third senior member of the group, İhsan C., was arrested in the western city of Bochum on Wednesday. He was suspected of coordinating DHKP-C’s activities in southern Germany, organizing propaganda activities, and providing fake ID documents and logistical support for the terrorist group.
Germany banned the DHKP-C in 2000, but the group is still active in the country, and has around 650 followers among the immigrant population, according to the domestic intelligence agency BfV.
Besides Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union list the DHKP-C as a terrorist organization. Ankara has repeatedly urged its NATO ally Germany to stop tolerating terrorist groups, which use the country as a platform for their activities against Turkey. Germany has also been viewed as a haven for supporters of the PKK, also recognized as a terrorist group by the European country. In 2019, a senior member of the DHKP-C was sentenced to six years in prison in Germany.
The terrorist group is responsible for a number of attacks in Turkey, including the assassination of business tycoon Özdemir Sabancı in 1996 and an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara in 2013 which killed a security guard.
The group has become less active in the country in recent years but remains a major security threat. The DHKP-C, which operated under the name "Dev Sol" until 1994, claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile murders, including the assassination of nationalist politician Gün Sazak and former Prime Minister Nihat Erim in 1980. The group also killed several Turkish intelligence officers. In 1994, the DHKP-C was founded after Dev Sol splintered. The group's terror activities remained relatively minor compared to the PKK, another terrorist group targeting Turkey.
The DHKP-C attempted to stage a bloody comeback in recent years by carrying out attacks against the police. In 2012, about 10 years after its last known lethal attack in Turkey, the DHKP-C conducted a suicide bombing at a police station in Istanbul, killing a police officer.
After February 2013 attack on the U.S. Embassy, it launched rocket attacks against the Ministry of Justice in Ankara and the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in March 2013. In September 2013, the DHKP-C claimed responsibility for a rocket attack against the headquarters of the Turkish police in the capital. No casualties were reported in the three attacks.