♪ >>hehello, and welcome to fokun europe. i'm michelle henery. one of the stories we covertoday is about what is thought to be the first victim ofeurope's new cyberwar -- ukraine. the hacking of criticalinfrastructure from the state treasury to the nation's powergrid herald an era of terrr and sabotage, but this time, it'sall taking place online. the national security councilsays that the attacks cae from russia.more on that is coming up later in the program.istanbul's location and architecture represents much ofwhat defines modern turkey. the metropolis straddles europeand asia. it is both rich with historicalmonuments and contemporary structures of glass and steel.simultaneously east and west,

religious and secular -- itseemed to sum up many peoples vision of the country's future.turkey, however, is now t a crossroads.recent terror attacks and the ongoing crackdown on thoseaccused of being against te government, have left manyresidents, like fuat, fearfl that the future of their countryis not what they had hopd for. >>it looks like the snow hastemporarily masked the tensin on the streets of istanbul.hardly anyone dares to talk about politics or terrorism --and certainly not in public. i visit fuat, whom i've knownfor as long as i've lived in turkey.he's a turkish teacher and co-owns a laundrette.fuat was hesistant to grant me an interview.it's a challenge for any foreign journalist these days to find aninterview partner ready to discuss political issues inturkey. anyone who speaks critically isquickly denounced as a traito.

it has been a difficult year forthe country. tourism has experienced anunprecedented slump followinga slew of attacks, and that hashad an affect on many businesses, including fuat'slaundry business. >>we earn less money so we haveto make do without a lot of things.we don't go out as often to the movies or restaurants.we try to cook more at home and avoid overspending in thesupermarket. we stick to the essentials. >>i ask fuat how he woulddescribe his fellow turks after the recent unrest. >>we're not so happy at themoment, because there are an increasing number of terrorattacks, which saddens us all. >>fuat wants to commemorate thevictims one of the largest

recent attacks in istanbul.i go with him to the besiktas football team's stadium.this was the site of a twin blast december last year, whichkilled at least 40 people. a splinter group of the pkk, thekurdistan freedom falcons, or tak, claimed responsibilty forthe bombing. terror had dominated theheadlines for much of 2016, o there was an overriding hopethat 2017 might be more peaceful.but gunshots rang in the new year after an assassin openedfire in the exclusive reia nightclub in istanbul, killing39 clubgoers. so-called islamic state quicklyclaimed responsibility. once again, turkey was in shock.a sea of flowers and flags were left outside the entrance to theclub. >>today, istanbul is verydifferent city.

five or six years ago, when youheard the name istanbul you would think of a multiculturalcity, full of foreigners from the middle east, europe andamerica living alongside turks. >>one of those turks was also afrequent visitor of the reina club. >>the fact that something likethis can happen in a club like that, or in istanbul, is notonly extremely damaging for the city's reputation, but also forthe whole country. tourists are afraid now and seeturkey with different eyes. i've experienced it myself.they avoid us now. if we wrap scarves around ourfaces, we're sarcastically asked if we're terrorists.we're very sad that the club has been shut down. >>fuat is saddened by theevents, but he's also upset about some fundamental changestaking place in his country. secular turks are underincreasing pressure from conservative islamic groups.

>>until a year or two ago, thatkind of pressure just didn't exist.even politicians would take part in celebrations.like in istanbul, when the mayor would appear with singers onstage in taksim square on new years eve.in the last few years though, social pressure has increased.many ignore it, but others have stopped celebrating. >>these are politicallyturbulent times. the president and the governmentwant to make changes o the constitution to grant erdoganmore power. fuat whe's not convinced by theamendment to the constitutio, though he's cautious about whathe says. >>-- >>i don't feel it'sparticularly democratic. we have a parliament, yet thenew constitution focuses on one person only.that's not what we want. the more people involved, thebetter it is for democracy. >>fuat wants to try out a newrestaurant with us in karakoy

district.he hasn't been out in a long time as it's too expensive.but it was important to him to be able to show us the lively,fun-loving side of istanbul. fuat drinks the traditionalturkish drink raki, a grape and aniseed based schnapps.he doesn't want his modern lifestyle to be curtailed byterrorists or islamic conservatives.and he calls on the west not to forget turkey. >>europeans, americans,australians -- all the people of the world should come to ourcountry and say: we are on your side. you are not alone. ♪ >>istanbul still has itscharms. fuat says it's a fun city foryoung people in particular. he feels that it and the rest ofturkey mustn't be left to the

fanatics. ♪ >>when you think of amsterdam,images of elegant canl houses, upright bicycles and bloomingtulips may come to mind. after all, it is the capital ofthe fifth most competitive economy in the world.but in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, amsterdam hasalso become the capital of european private debt -- withone in five families feeling overwhelmed by what they owe.with a general election looming, this has become a centralcampaign issue. our reporter takes us to meetone family living in the north of the city, not far from itsfamous canals but even in ths modest suburb there is a realbattle to pay the bills. ♪ >>rows of squat brick houses,and streets without traffic. this is nothern amsterdam, apart of the city populated by

the poor and the unemployed.a dodgy neighborhood -- far away from the wealth visible alongamsterdam's famous canals.♪ >>no one knows this districtbetter than paul scheerder. for more than 40 years, thesocial worker has been trying to help people in this area.there are lots of social problems, he says, but theeconomic crisis of recent years has made them worse. ♪ >>there's lot of indebtedness.domestic violence s also a problem, but indebtedness is thebiggest one. >>carmelita dors is one of thepeople who have gotten in ovr their heads.scheerder is trying to help her. dors -- an immigrant fromsurinam -- bought furniture on a

instalment plan but didn't readthe fine print. she regrets what she did everytime she enters her kids' room. the bed sleeps one on top andtwo down below. >>she bought it ten years ago. >>i wanted to pay it off ininstallments, but i didn't see that i was paying 14% interest.i paid the principal all these years but i couldn't pay off theinterest. >>as a result, a bunk bedoriginally priced at 1800 euros came to cost 7000.dors doesn't know whether she'll ever be able to pay it off.a legal custodian now monitors the single mother's finances.she was given this stove, so that she wouldn't go furtherinto debt. it's a common problem. >>every fifth family in thenetherlands is in debt -- around

20%.all this woman did was buy a bed. but on average, indebtedfamilies owe 40,000 euros. >>the dutch have racked up oneof the highest ratios of household debt in europe.experts say the cause is the financial crisis, which began in2008 and still isn't entirely over.the crisis cost lots of people their jobs, and they were unableto pay their debts. >>the unemployment rose from250,000 to 700,000. losing your job means losingpart of your income. when you are not able to changeyour expenditure, you automatically get into debt.that's what's happened in the

last 10 years. >>people in urban areastypically fall behind on their rent.dutch housing associations try a variety of strategies to getthose in arrears to pay up. they say a mixture of sanctionsand assistance works best. >>we have no intention oftelling them, pay what you want when you want.we tell them straight out that the rent is due on the first ofthe month. but we don't just warn them.if they still can't pay, we see what we can do to help them.we visit them at home and stay in contact via text messages andemail. they've even formed a whatsappgroup of their own. >>parties vying for support inholland's national election on march 15th are all trying toexploit the dissatisfaction of indebted dutch people.right-wing populist geert

wilders contends thatimmigrants, and not a poorly managed economy, are to blamefor the netherlands'social problems.but ordinary dutch people want concrete measures and not justslogans from their politicians, for example tough consumerprotection laws. >>it should be the lender'sresponsibility to make sure that the borrower can ultimately payoff the debt. it shouldn't be allowed to sellpeople products they can't afford or renting apartments outto someone who cannot afford. >>carmelita dors' stove hasbeen installed. dors, who suffers fromrheumatism, is happy to see light at the end of the tunnelof debt. >>the door of my old stovebroke. i had to live two years withouta functioning stove. now i'm grateful to the city ofamsterdam. ♪

>>but she still hasn't paid offher 10 year old bed. like many dutch people, and notjust in north amsterdam, she'll have to continue to battleagainst debt. ♪ >>ukraine says russia istesting a new form of weapon on them. but not in the ongoingconfrontation with the seperatists in eastern ukraine.it is a war without any shots being fired.according to ukrainian president petro poroshenko, russiansecurity services are waging a cyberwar against the country,including attacks on its finance and defense ministries.a suspected hack also wiped out part of kiev's power grid,causing a blackout in part of the capital.our reporter visited the power station there, to understand howsuch an attack happened and what the country is doing to protectitself. ♪

>>at the electrical substationpivnitchna near kyiv one december weekend, olegzaitshenko was on duty. his computer monitors showednothing unusual. >>it was around midnight whenthe alarm sounded. the 330-kilovolt facilitysuddenly shut down. so did the 110-kilovoltfacility. but the system didn't report anyemergency. i didn't have time to be afraid.i had to act immediately. >>the systems all shut down.something had happened -- but what? >>i knew that wasn't normal.but i couldn't imagine that the whole station could have ablackout. >>first the lights flickered.then they went completely out in

parts of kyiv, the capital ofukraine. the attackers had prepared well.months earlier, they had planted a virus in the control room ofthe national energy supplier: now they had activated it fromafar. >>it was a targeted attack,organized by a large number of professionally trained hackers.in ukraine, this is becoming a military method of producingdisorientation. a method of causing technical,economic, and social damage. >>the same intruder had struckexactly a year earlier in western ukraine.for several hours, power was cut off to more than 200,000households. but who are the attackers?i.t. security experts have been tracking them for a long time.they are a team with huge

financial resources.so what is their goal? >>we think they primarily wantto show their clients what they can do. and they want to train.they want to test us. ukraine's cyber-space has reallybecome a military testing ground. >>there have been several suchwaves of cyber attacks since the outbreak of the war in easternukraine. the intruders burrowed their wayinto the software of the ukrainian railways and crashedthe ticketing system. freight could no longer beregistered. the virus was also found in thecomputers of kyiv's main airport.television broadcasters reported disturbances.here and in other cases, the hackers sent contaminatede-mails to employees, finally breaching the system.in december 2016, suddenly the

government treasury could nolonger transfer money. >>if these criminals hadachieved their goal, then at the end of the budgetary year allpayments and social welfare benefits would have beenblocked. that would have led to socialunrest and very serious incidents here in ukraine. >>ukraine's security councilthinks the trail most probably leads to russia.cyber units operate there along with the army, navy, and airforce. >>russia is showing the westand nato that it has these capabilities.in ukraine, we are seeing the first use in europe of acyber-weapon, the first cyber-attack on civilianinfrastructure. >>may 2014.a pro-russian hacker group calling itself cyberberkutpenetrates the computers of ukraine's central electioncommission and spreads a fake

report that petro poroshenko didnot get the most votes in the presidential election, butdmitry yarosh, the candidate of the rightwing nationalists.russian state television picked that up and ran with this fakestory. later, cyberberkut claimedresponsibility for an attack on the websites of germany'sparliament, the bundestag, and on the chancellory.the ukrainian computers are holding countless pieces ofevidence of russian or pro-russian intruders, sayinternational security firms. a war is raging, unseen in thedepths of the internet, equalling conventional war.we met with two hackers with the cover names sean and jeff.for years, russian and ukrainian hackers worked together in apowerful cyber-gang. then the war broke out.since then, sean and jeff stage cyber-attacks on russia.sometimes they are pitted

against people they knowpersonally. their group hacked into theserver of the russian parliament, the duma, snaggingand leaking documents showing how the russian orthodox churchsupports the war in easten ukraine.and they published the e-mails of one of putin's advisors. >>we leaked a budget projectionthat shows how various actors, including the russian orthodoxchurch, fund operations in eastern ukraine.it showed exact sums, precise plans, and everyone involved. >>breaking in, evaluating,putting things together: hackers and investigators analyze secretand public sources and reveal, for example, which brigades andwhat equipment of the russian military are stationed where ineastern ukraine. >>we hacked into theseparatists' requests that the russian army provide them withsatellite pictures or drone.

>>nato and the ukrainiangovernment have started using the data collected by sean, jeffand their group. they say their cyber-war is likedavid and goliath. their enemy has tremendousfinancial resources ad a huge army of expert hackers. ♪ >>-- >>this week in our serieseurope's mountains -- conquering the peaks, we take you to thespanish island of mallorca. here, in the serra de tramuntanain the north of the island, lives europe's largest raptor,the black vulture. conservation efforts havemanaged to save them from

extinction, but due to moderndevelopments on the mediterrenean island theirexistence is still threatened. ♪ >>as if effortlessly, theyglide for hours in majestic circles with only an occasionalflap of their wings. martin solivellas regards themas the heroes of the mountains: the black vultures of the sierrade tramontana on mallorca. but their numbers have dwindled.only 150 of them still live in remote parts of the island. >>when i was born up here inthe mountains, there were lots of black vultures.what impressed me most back then was that birds this big couldfly at all. watching them is quite a show. >>mallorca is the only europeanisland where black vultures

still live.the carrion feeders live primarily from dead sheep andgoats. but the number of sheep andgoats up here is dwindling, too. shepherds are increasinglyleaving the sierras. >>the problem began in the1960's. many people moved away becauseworking in tourism is easier. that's a problem.life up here is hard, and you don't earn as much money aselsewhere. >>when the shepherds leave, thesheep disappear. and when the sheep disappear, sodo the vultures. evelyn tewes cares for injuredvultures on mallorca. she created a foundation toprotect the species. when the biologist from viennacame to mallorca 30 years ago, the vultures were in even worsestraits. >>there were only about 19birds, and just one breeding

pair.some years it bred, in others it didn't.and if no protective measures had been taken, then these birdswouldn't be here anymore. >>but the black vulture isn'tout of the woods yet. along with the lack of food,tourism is stressing the birds. >>increasing numbers of hikersare penetrating even the most remote areas.and that's a problem for these animals. >>a record ten millionvacationers visited mallorca last year.many visit the mountains, and some leave the marked hikingpaths. so do mallorcans, like javi,whom we met by chance. he wants to spend the night outunder the stars and wasn't aware that that could bother the blackvultures. >>i didn't know these birdsbefore.

but of course, as a naturelover, i'm sorry that we already harm the black vultures just bybeing here. it's very sad. ♪ >>a changing human societyconfronts mallorca's vultures with fewer meals and more noisytourists. martin solivellas will have togive up shepherding, too. he and his wife are starting toprepare for their old age. they want to spend their timewith their grandchildren. >>when i retire, i don't knowwhat will happen to the animals. none of my children wants tofollow in my footsteps, like e followed our parents.and that's how it is with most shepherds and their herds. >>modern life on mallorcadetermines the fate of the black vultures.already today, many have to be fed.martin solivellas says that's the only way the species willsurvive here.

he hopes his heroes of themountains will not go extinc. >>how far should we go topreserve the vulture? or should we allow them to dieout? let us know what you think aboutthat or any of today's stories by getting in touch on twitteror on our facebook page, dw stories.until next time, it is goodbye from me and the whole fokus oneurope team. ♪ [captioning performed by thenational captioning institut, which is responsible for itscaption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]