Excerpt:
A key Turkish religious organisation in Germany said on Sunday it would further distance itself from Ankara after politicians and media raised concerns of foreign influence.
Mosque federation Ditib "is and will remain politically neutral", spokesman Zekeriya Altug told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) newspaper.
"Apart from the imams supplied by the Diyanet (Turkey's religious affairs agency), there is no financial support from the Turkish state or the Diyanet," he said.
Some media and politicians have raised fears of divided loyalties among Germany's roughly three-million-strong Turkish population -- and suggested Ditib's imams could be relaying political messages from the Turkish government.