Turkey on Sunday accused Germany of supporting the network of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric it blames for last year’s attempted coup, comments likely to aggravate a diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Germany and Turkey have been locked in a deepening row after Berlin banned some Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of expatriate Turks ahead of a referendum next month, citing public safety concerns.

On Saturday, German news magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with the head of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency, who said Ankara had failed to convince it that the cleric Fethullah Gulen was responsible for the coup attempt.

“Turkey has tried to convince us of that at every level but so far it has not succeeded,” Bruno Kahl was quoted as saying.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said Kahl’s comments were proof Germany was supporting Gulen’s network, which Ankara refers to as the “Gulenist Terrorist Organisation” or “FETO”.

“It’s an effort to invalidate all the information we have given them on FETO. It’s a sign of their support for FETO,” Ibrahim Kalin told broadcaster CNN Turk.

“Why are they protecting them? Because these are useful instruments for Germany to use against Turkey.”

There was no response from Germany to the comments.

Ankara blames Gulen’s network of followers in the military for the abortive putsch in July, when a group of rogue soldiers seized tanks, helicopters and war planes to attack parliament and attempt to overthrow the government. More than 240 people were killed in the coup attempt.

Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied the charges and condemned the coup.

JAILED JOURNALIST

Kalin said there was a possibility Erdogan could plan a rally to address Turks in Germany before the April 16 referendum on changing the constitution, a move that would further heighten tensions with Berlin.

The constitutional change would give Erdogan sweeping new powers. Critics say it would give him too much power.

At a speech on Sunday in Istanbul, Erdogan lashed out against a Turkish-German journalist now in jail in Turkey, calling him a terrorist agent.

Erdogan, who was speaking at a meeting of an Islamic foundation, said the reporter, Deniz Yucel of Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, would be tried by Turkey’s independent judiciary.

Authorities arrested Yucel, a dual Turkish and German national, last month on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to violence.

He was initially detained after he reported on emails that a leftist hacker collective had purportedly obtained from the private account of Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s energy minister and Erdogan’s son-in-law.

Turkey has handed over to the U.S. Justice Department further documents to back its request for the extradition of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed July 15 coup attempt, Turkey’s justice minister said on Thursday.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that in a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Washington on Wednesday he gave U.S. authorities three new folders of evidence they had sought over Turkey’s accusations against Gulen.

Bozdag described his meeting with Lynch as “fruitful,” saying it helped the two sides better understand each other’s positions. But he told reporters Lynch expressed neither support nor opposition for Turkey’s request that the United States extradite Gulen.

The Turkish cleric, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement in the coup attempt.

Turkey is a critical ally of the United States in its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey’s presidential spokesman said earlier this month that the United States does not appear to have understood the seriousness of Turkey’s call to extradite Gulen.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Bozdag and Lynch discussed that in both Turkey and the United States “extraditions are subject to the judicial process, and accordingly must meet the evidentiary standards of the requested country.”

Bozdag said the folders he gave Lynch contained information and documents that U.S. officials had requested when visiting Turkey in August. He declined to elaborate. The Justice Department also declined to comment on the material Bozdag said he provided.

The Justice Department has not taken any steps to initiate extradition proceedings against Gulen based on the information that Turkey has provided so far. Turkey has criticized the United States for not moving faster on the matter.

Turkey has arrested more than 35,000 people, detained thousands more and sacked over 100,000 people over what it says are links with Gulen since the coup attempt.

Bozdag said at Thursday’s press conference that the purge was “not 100 percent over.”

He added that Turkey has “zero tolerance” toward torture, denying a recent Human Rights Watch report that alleges Turkey’s security services have tortured people who were detained after the coup attempt.

Turkey’s government has sent German authorities requests for 40 searches and three extraditions linked to supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S-based Muslim cleric it blames for last month’s attempted coup, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses a network of schools, charities and businesses led by Gulen, and built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, of infiltrating state institutions and orchestrating the failed coup.

Authorities in Turkey have arrested or suspended tens of thousands of police, troops, officials, judges and civil servants because of their alleged links to Gulen’s movement.

Citing classified documents, Spiegel said Turkey’s secret service had asked Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) for help in rounding up Gulen supporters in Germany.

The magazine said the Turkish secret service wanted the BND to use its influence to spur German lawmakers into taking action against Gulen supporters and extraditing them to Turkey.

A spokesman for the BND said the agency only reported on the operative aspects of its work to the German government and the responsible authorities in the lower house of parliament.

A Turkish presidency official said: “It’s not our policy to comment on intelligence operations. However, we expect all our friends and allies to assist Turkey’s efforts to hold FETO operatives accountable for their crimes.” FETO is an abbreviation standing for the “Gulenist Terror Group” which is how Ankara refers to Gulen’s movement.

Germany is home to a three-million strong Turkish community and concern is growing that tensions between Erdogan backers and Gulen supporters are spilling over onto German soil.

Erdogan backers have demonstrated in several German cities since July’s attempted putsch, shops have been boycotted by political rivals and hate mail has been sent to anti-Erdogan politicians.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday Ankara would put its domestic and external intelligence operations under an umbrella structure to allow better coordination and help prevent another coup attempt.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday to choke off businesses linked to the U.S.-based cleric he blames for an attempted coup, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism” and promising no mercy in rooting them out.

Business is the arena in which the network of Fethullah Gulen is still the strongest, Erdogan said in a speech from his palace broadcast live. Those who “financed the shooters” would be treated like the coup plotters themselves, he said.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to infiltrate state institutions and build a “parallel structure” that aimed to take over the country.

An Istanbul court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the cleric for “giving the instructions” for the coup attempt, the latest of several warrants issued against him in recent years on charges including running a criminal network.

The 75-year-old cleric denies the allegations.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation for alleged links to his “Hizmet” (Service) movement since the July 15 coup, prompting fears among Western allies and rights groups of a witch-hunt.

“They have nothing to do with a religious community, they are a fully-fledged terrorist organisation … This cancer is different, this virus has spread everywhere,” Erdogan told heads of chambers of commerce and bourses attending his speech.

“The business world is where they are the strongest. We will cut off all business links, all revenues of Gulen-linked business. We are not going to show anyone any mercy,” he said, describing the detentions so far as just the tip of the iceberg.

BUSINESS CRACKDOWN

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied plotting against the state and has condemned the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks, bombing parliament and seizing bridges in a bid to seize power.

More than 230 people were killed, excluding soldiers who were involved in the coup attempt. Many of the dead were civilians.

Before the failed coup, the Turkish authorities had already seized Islamic lender Bank Asya, taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric’s movement.

Although the bulk of the purges in the wake of the putsch have been in the security forces, judiciary and public sector, private firms have also been affected.

The head of research at a brokerage had his licence revoked over a report to investors analysing the coup plot, while Turkish Airlines, arguably the country’s most recognised brand, has fired 211 staff over alleged Hizmet links.

The chairman and several executives from Boydak Holding, a prominent family-run conglomerate with interests from furniture to energy, have also been detained, as has the chief of Turkey’s biggest petrochemicals firm Petkim.

“KEEPING A COOL HEAD”

The coup fallout risks affecting some multinational firms operating in Turkey, including delaying investment decisions.

German energy group EWE, which employs around 700 people in Turkey, said around a dozen managers had left its subsidiary in recent days. A spokesman declined to give a reason but said the company, while not questioning its engagement with Turkey, was monitoring the political and economic situation very carefully.

Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser told reporters on Thursday he had summoned the head of the group’s Turkish operations to a supervisory board meeting a day earlier to get a first-hand account of events inside the country.

The German industrial group employs 3,000 people in Turkey.

“It’s a question of keeping a cool head and keeping an eye on how things develop, because things are developing which are not really desirable in a modern democracy,” he told a conference call to discuss the company’s earnings.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would introduce a package of reforms to encourage investment including removing some taxes, as the government looks to shore up confidence. But investors remain cautious.

“Investment plans are being put on ice. Given the current emergency legislation new investment is not advisable,” said Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s BGA trade association, adding concern about Turkey’s credit ratings had also made investment more expensive.

Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Turkey with investments totalling more than 12 billion euros ($13.3 billion) since 1980, according to the German foreign ministry.

STRAINS IN RELATIONS

The coup and its aftermath have strained Turkey’s relations with the United States, which has said it will not extradite Gulen unless Turkey provides evidence of his wrongdoing, and Europe, some of whose politicians have raised concern that Erdogan is using events to further tighten his grip on power.

Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister criticised comments by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern suggesting talks on Turkey joining the European Union should be broken off, saying the EU’s founding values remain a reference for Ankara.

Kern said on Wednesday he would start a discussion among European heads of government to quit talks on Turkish accession because of its democratic and economic deficits.

“It’s disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right… Criticism is surely a democratic right but there has to be a difference between criticising Turkey and being against Turkey,” EU minister Omer Celik told reporters.

A senior EU official involved in accession talks with Turkey said Kern’s comments were “too early” and part of “the domestic debate” in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party attracts around a third of votes in opinion polls. But he did not entirely dismiss them.

“The EU should not, obviously, pursue the road of ending the accession talks with Turkey, but we will have to if Turkey keeps sliding into semi-authoritarianism,” the official said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in remarks published on Thursday that it would be counterproductive to freeze accession talks, but said Turkey is currently unfit to become an EU member.

The purges of Gulen’s suspected followers this week extended to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak) and have also included private and military hospitals, which are now under the supervision of the health ministry.

The number of staff purged at Turkey’s Football Federation rose to more than 110 on Thursday, while four actors and two directors at municipal theatres in Istanbul were also suspended, according to broadcaster NTV.

Turkey purged its police on Monday after rounding up thousands of soldiers in the wake of a failed military coup, and said it could reconsider its friendship with the United States unless Washington hands over a cleric Ankara blames for the putsch.

Turkish authorities moved swiftly to retaliate for Friday night’s coup, in which more than 200 people were killed when a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power.

But the swift justice, including calls to reinstate the death penalty for plotters, drew concern from Western allies who said Ankara must uphold the rule of law in the country, a NATO member that is Washington’s most powerful Muslim ally.

Thousands of members of the armed forces, from foot soldiers to commanders, were rounded up on Sunday, some shown in photographs stripped to their underpants and handcuffed on the floors of police buses and a sports hall. Several thousand prosecutors and judges have also been removed.

A senior security official told Reuters that 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had also been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s coup bid.

Thirty regional governors and more than 50 high-ranking civil servants have also been dismissed, CNN Turk said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 7,543 people had so far been detained, including 6,038 soldiers. Work was under way to purge the civil service.

Turkey blames the failed coup on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in the United States who has a wide following in Turkey and denies any involvement.

Ankara has demanded Washington hand him over. Washington says it is prepared to extradite him but only if Turkey provides evidence linking him to crime. Yildirim rejected that demand.

“We would be disappointed if our (American) friends told us to present proof even though members of the assassin organisation are trying to destroy an elected government under the directions of that person,” Yildirim said.

“At this stage there could even be a questioning of our friendship,” Yildirim added.

Yildirim said 232 people were killed in Friday night’s violence, 208 of them civilians, police and loyalist soldiers, and a further 24 coup plotters. Officials previously said the overall death toll was more than 290.

ERDOGAN’S PLANE IN REBEL SIGHTS

Around 1,400 others were wounded as soldiers commandeered tanks, attack helicopters and fighter jets in their bid to seize power, strafing parliament and the intelligence headquarters and trying to seize the main airport and bridges in Istanbul.

The coup crumbled after President Tayyip Erdogan, on holiday at the coast, phoned in to a television news programme and called for his followers to take to the streets. He was able to fly into Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday, after rebel pilots had his plane in their sights but did not shoot it down.

On Sunday he told crowds of supporters, called to the streets by the government and by mosques across the country, that parliament must consider their demands to apply the death penalty for the plotters.

“We cannot ignore this demand,” he told a chanting crowd outside his house in Istanbul late on Sunday. “In democracies, whatever the people say has to happen.”

He called on Turks to stay on the streets until Friday, and late into Sunday night his supporters thronged squares and streets, honking horns and waving flags.

Turkey gave up the death penalty in 2004 as part of a programme of reforms required to become a candidate to join the EU. Germany said on Monday that Turkey would lose its EU status if it reinstates the death penalty.

Yildirim said Turkey should not act hastily over the death penalty but could not ignore the demands of its people.

The bloodshed shocked the nation of almost 80 million, where the army last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago, and shattered fragile confidence in the stability of a NATO member state already rocked by Islamic State suicide bombings and an insurgency by Kurdish militants.

Western countries said they supported Erdogan’s government but Ankara should abide by the rule of law.

“We stand squarely on the side of the elected leadership in Turkey. But we also firmly urge the government of Turkey to maintain calm and stability throughout the country,” U.S. Secretary of State Kerry told a news briefing in Brussels where he attended a gathering of European counterparts.

“We also urge the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standards of respect for the nation’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that.”

Referring to Gulen, Kerry called on Turkey to furnish evidence “that withstands scrutiny”, rather than allegations.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also called on Ankara to avoid steps that would damage the constitutional order.

“We were the first … during that tragic night to say that the legitimate institutions needed to be protected,” she told reporters on arrival at the EU foreign ministers meeting.

“We are the ones saying today rule of law has to be protected in the country,” she said. “There is no excuse for any steps that take the country away from that.”

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition, parliament’s third largest party, said it would not support any government proposal to reintroduce the death penalty. The main CHP opposition said the response to the coup attempt must be conducted within the rule of law and that the plotters should face trial.

“HEAVY BLOW” TO MILITARY

Turkish security forces are still searching for some of the soldiers involved in the coup bid in various cities and rural areas but there is no risk of a renewed bid to seize power, a senior security official told Reuters.

The official said Turkey’s military command had been dealt “a heavy blow in terms of organisation” but was still functioning in coordination with the intelligence agency, police and the government. Some high-ranking military officials involved in the plot have fled abroad, he said.

Erdogan has long accused Gulen of trying to create a “parallel state” within the courts, police, armed forces and media. Gulen, in turn, has said the coup attempt may have been staged, casting it as an excuse for Erdogan to forge ahead with his purge of the cleric’s supporters from state institutions.

The swift rounding up of judges and others indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said.

“I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared,” he said in Brussels.

A Turkish official acknowledged that Gulen’s followers in the armed forces had been under investigation for some time, but denied that an arrest list had been prepared in advance.

“In our assessment, this group acted out of a sense of emergency when they realised that they were under investigation. There was a list of people who were suspected of conspiring to stage a coup,” the official said.

“There was no arrest list. There was a list of people suspected of planning a coup.”