Tag Archives: Germany

Turkey’s Erdogan claims Germany abetting terrorists

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting of his ruling AK Party in Rize, Turkey, August 7, 2017. Picture taken August 7, 2017. The party banner in the background reads that: "Together with new targets". Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany on Monday of assisting terrorists by not responding to thousands of files sent to Berlin or handing over suspects wanted by Turkish authorities.

“Germany is abetting terrorists,” Erdogan told a conference in the Black Sea province of Rize, in comments likely to further escalate tensions between the two countries.

“We gave (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel 4,500 dossiers, but have not received an answer on a single one of them,” he told members of his ruling AK Party.

“When there is a terrorist, they can tell us to give that person back. You won’t send the ones you have to us, but can ask us for yours. So you have a judiciary, but we don’t in Turkey?” he said.

In Berlin, a German government source rejected Erdogan’s latest remarks.

“Everything has really been said about this,” said the source. “Repeating the same accusations over and over again does not make them any more true.”

Already tense relations deteriorated further last month after Turkey arrested 10 rights activists, including a German, as part of a wider security crackdown.

A Turkish prosecutor has accused them of links to the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in July 2016. The U.S.-based Gulen denies any involvement.

Turkey accuses Germany of sheltering Kurdish and far-leftist militants as well as military officers and other people linked to the abortive coup. Berlin denies the accusations.

Tensions between Berlin and Ankara were already running high after the arrest of a Turkish-German journalist and Turkey’s refusal to allow German lawmakers to visit troops at a Turkish air base.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by David Dolan and Andrew Bolton)

‘No more waiting!’ Syrians stuck in Greece protest at German embassy

Syrian refugee children hold banners and shout during a demonstration against delays in reunifications of refugee families from Greece to Germany, in Athens, Greece, August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

ATHENS (Reuters) – Syrian refugees stranded in Greece chanted “no more waiting!” and protested outside the German embassy in Athens on Wednesday against delays in reuniting with their relatives in Germany.

About 100 people, among them young children, marched from parliament to the embassy holding up cardboard banners in English reading “I want my family” and shouting slogans about travel to Germany.

Greek media have reported that Greece and Germany have informally agreed to slow down refugee reunification, stranding families in Greece for months after they fled Syria’s civil war.

About 60,000 refugees and migrants, mostly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, have been in Greece for over a year after border closures in the Balkans halted the onward journey many planned to take to central and western Europe.

“My message is ‘enough waiting, enough suffering’,” said 41-year-old Syrian Malak Rahmoun, who lives in a Greek camp with her three daughters while her husband and son are in Berlin. “I feel my heart (is) miserable,” she said.

Rahmoun said she and her daughter applied for family reunification last year but that the Greek authorities have not given a clear reply.

A deal between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 slowed the flow of people crossing to Greece but about 100 a day continue to arrive on Greek islands.

Nearly 11,000 refugees and migrants have crossed to Greece from Turkey this year, down from 173,000 in 2016 and a fraction of the nearly 1 million arrivals in 2015.

Most of the new arrivals this year are women and children, according to United Nations data. In earlier years, men were the first to flee to Europe, leaving other family members to follow.

“I’ve never seen my son (in) two years,” Rahmoun said.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris)

Hamburg attacker was known to security forces as Islamist: minister

Security forces and ambulances are seen after a knife attack in a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

HAMBURG (Reuters) – The migrant who killed one person and injured six others in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket on Friday was an Islamist known to German security forces, who say they believed he posed no immediate threat, the city-state’s interior minister said on Saturday.

A possible security lapse in a second deadly militant attack in less than a year, and two months before the general election, would be highly embarrassing for German intelligence, especially since security is a main theme in the Sept. 24 vote.

A Tunisian failed asylum seeker killed 12 people by driving a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in December, slipping through the net after intelligence officers who had monitored him reached the conclusion he was no threat.

Hamburg Interior Minister Andy Grote told a news conference on Saturday that Friday’s 26-year-old attacker was registered in intelligence systems as an Islamist but not as a jihadist, as there was no evidence to link him to an imminent attack.

He also said the attacker, a Palestinian asylum seeker who could not be deported as he lacked identification documents, was psychologically unstable.

The Palestinian mission in Berlin had agreed to issue him with documents and he had agreed to leave Germany once these were ready, a process that takes a few months.

“What we can say of the motive of the attacker at the moment is that on the one side there are indications that he acted based on religious Islamist motives, and on the other hand there are indications of psychological instability,” Grote said.

“The attacker was known to security forces. There was information that he had been radicalized,” he said.

“As far as we know … there were no grounds to assess him as an immediate danger. He was a suspected Islamist and was recorded as such in the appropriate systems, not as a jihadist but as an Islamist.”

Prosecutors said the attacker pulled a 20-centimetre knife from a shelf at the supermarket and stabbed three people inside and four outside before passers-by threw chairs and other objects at him, allowing police to arrest him.

A 50-year-old man died of his injuries. None of the other six people injured in the attack is in a life-threatening condition.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a fourth term in office in September. Her decision in 2015 to open Germany’s doors to more than one million migrants has sparked a debate about the need to spend more on policing and security.

Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri, who could not be deported because he lacked identification documents, carried out his attack at a Christmas market in Berlin in December after security agencies stopped monitoring him because they could not prove suspicions that he was planning to purchase weapons.

(Reporting by Frank Witte in Hamburg; Writing by Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

One dead in knife attack in Hamburg supermarket, motive unclear

Security forces are seen after a knife attack in a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

BERLIN (Reuters) – One person was killed in an attack by a lone knifeman in a supermarket in the northern German city of Hamburg on Friday, and four more were injured when the man fled the scene, police said.

The police said the man had suddenly started attacking customers in the shop, with no immediate indication of any political or religious motive. Officers detained him near the site.

“We have no clear information as to the motive or the number of wounded,” Hamburg police said in a tweet. “It was definitely a lone attacker.” They said initial reports about a possible robbery had not been substantiated.

Police said passersby tackled the man after he fled the scene, injuring him slightly, before plain clothes police officers could take him into custody.

Police have been on high alert in Germany since a spate of attacks on civilians last year, including a December attack on a Berlin Christmas market, when a hijacked truck plougher into the crowds, killing 12 and injuring many more.

Security has been a campaign issue ahead of Sept. 24 parliamentary elections, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win a fourth term in office.

Newspaper Bild showed a picture of the alleged Hamburg attacker sitting in the back of a police car, his face concealed with a bloodied shroud.

A video on its website showed a helicopter landed outside the supermarket with armed police in body armor patrolling the neighborhood.

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Michelle Martin and Toby Davis)

NATO offers to broker compromise in Turkish-German stand-off

FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the beginning of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Bernd Von Jutrczenka/POOL/File Photo

By Paul Carrel and Robin Emmott

BERLIN (Reuters) – NATO’s secretary general is offering to broker a visit by German lawmakers to troops serving on a Turkish air base in an attempt to heal a rift between the two allies which is disrupting anti-Islamic State operations.

The mediation offer by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Monday, came as Ankara itself sought to limit the economic fallout from the damaging row with Berlin, dropping a request for Germany to help it investigate hundreds of German companies it said could have links to terrorism.

Germany has become increasingly worried by President Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on the Turkish opposition since a coup attempt last year – concerns made more acute by the arrest this month of six human rights activists, including one German.

Adding to tensions is Turkey’s refusal to let German members of parliament visit soldiers stationed at two air bases. For historical reasons, Germany’s soldiers answer to parliament and Berlin insists lawmakers have access to them.

This has already led Germany to move troops involved in the campaign against Islamic State from Turkey’s Incirlik base to Jordan. The risk of further decampments has sparked deep concern in NATO and now prompted it to intervene.

“The Secretary General has now offered to arrange a visit for parliamentarians to Konya airfield within a NATO framework,” alliance spokesman Piers Cazalet said on Monday. “Konya airfield is vital for NATO operations in support of Turkey and the Counter-ISIS Coalition.”

With Germany Ankara’s largest export market and home to a three million strong Turkish diaspora, it is in Turkey’s economic interests to resolve the row. The swift deterioration in relations threatens to damage deep-rooted human and economic ties.

CLOSE TIES

Germany has warned its nationals traveling to Turkey that they do so at their own risk, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Erdogan was “jeopardizing the centuries-old partnership”.

Stepping back from confrontation, Turkey’s interior minister on Monday told his German counterpart that Ankara’s submission to Interpol of a list of nearly 700 German companies suspected of backing terrorism had stemmed from “a communications problem”.

Turkey had merely asked Interpol for information regarding the exports of 40 Turkish companies with alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed for the failed putsch last July, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said. He promised that Turkey would remain a “safe haven” for foreign investors.

Germany’s DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce said firms remained uncertain about doing business in Turkey, from which Germany bought $14 billion worth of goods in 2016.

“I hear it a lot: if the political environment does not improve, if legal certainty is in question, then there will hardly be a recovery in new investments by German firms (in Turkey),” DIHK foreign trade chief Volker Treier said.

(Additional reporting by Rene Wagner in Berlin, Robin Emmott in Brussels and Ece Toksabay in Ankara, writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Turkish journalists go on trial accused of supporting terrorism

Journalists and press freedom activists release balloons during a demonstration in solidarity with the members of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet who were accused of supporting a terrorist group outside a courthouse, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 24, 2017.

By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Prominent journalists and other staff at a Turkish opposition newspaper went on trial on Monday accused of supporting a terrorist group, in a case that critics of President Tayyip Erdogan consider attack on free speech.

“Journalism is not a crime,” chanted several hundred people gathered outside the central Istanbul court to protest against the prosecution of 17 writers, executives and lawyers of the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper.

The trial coincides with an escalating dispute with Germany over the arrest in Turkey of 10 rights activists, including one German, as part of a crackdown since last year’s attempted coup against Erdogan.

Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to 43 years in jail for newspaper staff accused of targeting Erdogan through “asymmetric war methods”.

“I am not here because I knowingly and willingly helped a terrorist organisation, but because I am an independent, questioning and critical journalist,” one of the defendants, columnist Kadri Gursel, told the court.

Gursel, who, along with editor Murat Sabuncu and other senior staff, has been in pre-trial detention for 267 days, was prevented from hugging his son in the courtroom by security guards, the newspaper said on its website.

The 324-page indictment alleges Cumhuriyet was effectively taken over by the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed for the failed putsch last July, and used to “veil the actions of terrorist groups”.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup.

The newspaper is also accused of writing stories that serve “separatist manipulation”.

Other defendants include Ahmet Sik, who once wrote a book critical of Gulen’s movement. Former editor Can Dundar, who is living in Germany, is being tried in absentia.

The newspaper has called the charges “imaginary accusations and slander”. Social media posts comprised the bulk of evidence in the indictment, along with allegations that staff had been in contact with users of Bylock, an encrypted messaging app the government says was used by Gulen’s followers.

 

‘DE FACTO COALITION’

“According to the government, everyone in opposition is a terrorist, the only non-terrorists are themselves,” Filiz Kerestecioglu, a member of parliament from the pro-Kurdish HDP opposition party, told reporters ahead of the trial.

Gursel, the columnist, denied he had links to Gulen’s movement, saying he had in the past revealed ties between Erdogan’s AK Party and the Gulen movement.

Erdogan has his roots in political Islam and was an ally of the cleric until a public falling-out in 2013.

“I exposed the current government’s de facto coalition with this group and I foresaw the harm that this sinister cooperation would do to the country,” he told the court.

Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have complained of deteriorating human rights under Erdogan. In the crackdown since last July’s failed coup, 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 detained or dismissed from their jobs.

As part of the purge some 150 media outlets have been shut down and around 160 journalists are in jail, according to the Turkish Journalists’ Association.

The crackdown has strained Turkey’s ties with the European Union, but reaction from the bloc has been restrained because it depends on Turkey to curb the flow of migrants into Europe.

Europe’s leading power, Germany, has stepped up pressure in recent days, threatening measures that could hinder German investment in Turkey and reviewing Turkish applications for arms deals.

Turkish authorities say the crackdown is justified by the gravity of the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers tried to overthrow the government and Erdogan, killing 250 people, most of them civilians.

 

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

 

Four German women who joined Islamic State detained in Iraq: report

BERLIN (Reuters) – Four German women, including a 16-year-old girl, who joined Islamic State in recent years are being held in an Iraqi prison and receiving consular assistance, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.

It said diplomats had visited the four in a prison at the airport in Baghdad on Thursday and they were doing well given the circumstances. They could face the death penalty in Iraq for belonging to the militant group, the magazine added.

It said Iraqi authorities had given Germany a list with the women’s names at the beginning of the week, identifying the teenager only as Linda W. from the small town of Pulsnitz near the eastern city of Dresden.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report.

German prosecutors said on Tuesday they were checking reports that a 16-year-old under investigation for supporting Islamic State was among five women arrested in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces declared victory over Islamic State earlier this month.

Der Spiegel said one of the Germans had Moroccan roots and another seemed to come from Chechnya but had a German passport.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency estimates that 930 people have left Germany in recent years to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. About 20 percent of them are women. Minors account for about 5 percent of the total number, of which half are female, it reckons.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Helen Popper)

‘You belong here’ Germany tells Turks as row with Ankara rages

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel addresses a news conference in Berlin, Germany, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

By Thomas Escritt and Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany sought on Saturday to reassure the country’s three million people of Turkish descent it would stand by them as a row with Ankara escalates, saying they were not the target of changes to government policy on Turkey.

In a letter published in German and Turkish in daily newspaper Bild, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany had no quarrel with Turkish people in either country but could not stand by as “innocent” German citizens were jailed.

On Friday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble compared Turkey’s detention of six rights activists, including a German, to the authoritarian former communist East Germany.

“However difficult the political relations between Germany and Turkey, one thing is clear: you, people of Turkish roots in Germany, belong here with us, whether you have a German passport or not,” Gabriel wrote in Saturday’s open letter.

“We have always striven for good relations with Turkey, because we know that good relations are important for you (German Turks),” he added.

He said Germany would review cooperation and especially economic aid for the fellow NATO member and campaign for Europe to take a clear position on Ankara.

Gokay Sofuoglu, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, welcomed Gabriel’s conciliatory words.

“We must not let ourselves be driven apart here in Germany. People with Turkish roots need to focus on Germany,” he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

‘UNACCEPTABLE AND UNBEARABLE’

Bilateral tensions were already high before the activists’ arrests after recriminations during an April referendum on extending President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers and a pullout of German troops from a Turkish air base that began this month.

The arrests are part of a sweeping crackdown across Turkish society since a failed coup against Erdogan last year.

German officials are also increasingly concerned at what they say is large-scale covert activity by Ankara’s security services among Germany’s Turkish diaspora.

Germany’s head of domestic intelligence said on Friday Turkish agencies were carrying out influence operations in Germany, including targeting opponents of Erdogan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian ally, Horst Seehofer, told Welt am Sonntag the financial aid Turkey receives as part of the European Union accession procedures should be cut off.

Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) that has long been skeptical about Turkey joining the EU, said the idea of the country becoming a full member was “well and truly over” and developments there were “unacceptable and unbearable”.

Germany has warned citizens who travel to Turkey they do so at their own risk and on Saturday the radical Left party urged the government to stop deportations in view of the arrest of government opponents.

“If the German Foreign Ministry warns against going on holiday in Turkey, then there needs to be an end to deportations of Turkish citizens,” party co-leader Bernd Riexinger told Die Welt newspaper.

(Editing by John Stonestreet and Helen Popper)

Turkey seeks to cool row with Germany as Berlin reviews arms requests

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble arrives to attend an European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

By Orhan Coskun and Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) – Turkey’s economy minister sought to calm rising tensions with Germany on Friday as Berlin said it was reviewing all applications for arms projects from Ankara.

Tensions between the NATO allies have escalated since Turkey arrested six human rights activists including German national Peter Steudtner on accusations of terrorism; but relations have been strained over a series of often bitter disputes this year.

Turkey’s economy minister told Reuters he believed the Turkey-Germany crisis was temporary.

“One must refrain from words that would cause lasting harm…to the economies,” Nihat Zeybekci said in an interview. “Germany must reassess comments that are inappropriate.”

But Germany said almost immediately afterwards it would review Turkish applications for arms projects.

“We’re checking all applications,” an Economy Ministry spokeswoman said.

That means the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) probably cannot issue new export approvals; but projects already agreed will not be affected initially as no international sanctions have been imposed on Turkey.

In 2016 the German government exported armaments worth 83.9 million euros to Turkey. In the first four months of 2017, business worth 22 million euros was approved – for deliveries for the navy and for joint projects with other NATO partners.

Germany has warned Germans traveling to Turkey that they do so at their own peril. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as comparing Turkey with the former communist East German state – the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

“Turkey now makes arbitrary arrests and no longer sticks to minimum consular standards. That reminds me of how it was in the GDR,” he told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.

Schaeuble said those who traveled to the former Communist East before it collapsed in 1990 were aware that “if something happens to you, no one can help you”.

TURKISH SECRET SERVICES

German officials have complained they have not had full consular access to Steudtner, who was arrested with five others and accused of “terrorism” – an allegation Berlin has dismissed as absurd. Another German citizen was arrested on charges of links to terrorism earlier this year.

The arrests were part of a broader crackdown across Turkish society since a failed coup last July.

Germany’s domestic security chief expressed concern about increased activities of Turkey’s secret service and the growth of militant groups among the three million people with Turkish roots living on German soil.

“We know about the Turkish government’s influence on the Turkish community here in Germany,” BfV president Hans-Georg Maassen told local newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Maassen named as an example charges being made against supporters of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating Turkey’s failed coup last July. He also said there were attempts to “intimidate those with Turkish roots if they are against President (Tayyip) Erdogan”.

German authorities barred Turkish ministers in March from speaking at mass rallies of expatriates supporting Erdogan’s campaign for broader presidential powers. Erdogan responded by accusing Berlin of “fascist actions”.

More than 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in Turkey’s civil service, military and private sector in the purges that followed the attempted putsch in 2016. More than 50,000 people have been jailed.

Rights groups and some Western governments say Erdogan is using the crackdown as a pretext to quash dissent. The Turkish government says the measures are necessary given the gravity of the security threat it faces.

Die Zeit newspaper reported this week that Turkish authorities had several weeks ago handed Berlin a list of 68 German companies, including Daimler and BASF that they accused of having links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the coup.

Zeybekci said Germany’s behavior in cautioning its citizens over travel to Turkey was “unfortunate”, but he did not see harm accruing to tourism.

So far this year, bookings from Germany have accounted for some 10 percent of Turkey’s tourists.

Last year, the number of foreign visitors to Turkey fell 30 percent amid a spate of bombings by Kurdish and Islamist militants, the lowest in nine years. The travel sector contributes about $30 billion to the economy in a normal year.

Commercial links are close.

Germany was also Turkey’s top export destination in 2016, buying $14 billion worth of Turkish goods. It was also the second biggest source of Turkish imports, at $21.5 billion. Only China, at $25.4 billion, exported more to Turkey.

German news broadcaster n-tv said it would no longer run adverts that aimed to attract investment in Turkey.

(Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Two German tourists stabbed to death on Egyptian beach

Egyptian in Red Sea knife attack supported Islamic State, sources say

By Mohamed Abdellah and Ahmed Tolba

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others on Friday at a popular seaside vacation spot on the Red Sea, after apparently searching out foreigners to attack, officials and witnesses said.

The knifeman killed the two German women and wounded two other tourists at the Zahabia hotel in Hurghada, then swam to a neighboring beach to attack at least two more people at the Sunny Days El Palacio resort before being caught by staff and arrested, officials and security sources said.

It was the first major attack on foreign tourists since a similar assault on the same resort more than a year ago, and comes as Egypt struggles to revive a tourism industry hurt by security threats and years of political upheaval.

“He had a knife with him and stabbed each of them three times in the chest. They died on the beach,” the security manager at the El Palacio hotel, Saud Abdelaziz, told Reuters.

“He jumped a wall between the hotels and swam to the other beach.”

Abdelaziz said two of the injured were Czech and two Armenian, but other officials said one of the women was Russian. They were being treated a local hospital. The Czech Foreign Ministry tweeted that one Czech woman had sustained a minor leg injury.

The German Foreign Ministry said it had no definite information, but could not rule out that German citizens were among the victims. The German Embassy in Cairo was working closely with the authorities, a ministry spokesman said.

ISLAMIST INSURGENCY

The attacker’s motive was still under investigation, the Interior Ministry said.

“He was looking for foreigners and he didn’t want any Egyptians,” said one member of staff at the Zahabia Hotel.

Egypt is fighting Islamist insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula, where they mainly target security forces, but militants have also attacked tourist targets in the past, as well as Coptic Christians and churches.

Hurghada, some 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Cairo, is one of Egypt’s most popular vacation spots on the Red Sea.

In January 2016, two assailants armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt landed on the beach of a hotel in Hurghada, and wounded two foreign tourists.

Egypt has been hoping that investments in airport security and the cheaper Egyptian pound will bring tourist visits to its beaches and ancient sites back up to levels seen before its 2011 uprising.

The industry, a crucial source of hard currency, has struggled since then with years of political turmoil and mass protests, as well as the fallout from the crash of a jet taking Russian holidaymakers home from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2015, in which 224 people died. Islamic State said it had brought the plane down with a bomb.

Friday’s attack came on a day that five policemen were killed by gunmen on a motorbike who ambushed their car just south of Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem in Cairo, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Robert Muller in Prague, Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Kevin Liffey)