Rome, Italy, Oct 2, 2008 / 13:29 pm
The German weekly Der Spiegel has published a report indicating that Communist Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi) unleashed “one of the largest campaigns of misinformation in its history” in order to deflect investigations into the attempt on the life of John Paul II in 1981 towards Turkish extremists.
According to the ANSA news agency, the article features new documents discovered in German state archives that reveal that the Stasi “tried to help the Bulgarian secret service. The organization enrolled a young Turkish citizen, Ismet Erguen, who began her mission in Berlin in February of 1982.”
“The documents show Erguen was involved until 1989, although today she denies ever having been an agent of the Stasi,” the news report indicated.
“The head of the foreign information sector of the Stasi, Markus Wolf, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, received a request for help from the Bulgarians in 1981 after the arrest of Ali Agca, as they were concerned that the Western media were focusing on a supposed Soviet-Bulgarian link in the assassination attempt.”
Der Spiegel claims that “the purpose was to divert suspicion towards the Gray Wolves, an extreme right-wing Turkish group.”
Wolf was satisfied with Erguen’s work because even today, “a legend exists according to which it was the Gray Wolves that gave orders to Agca,” the newspaper reports.