Abdallah Bozkurt/Stockholm
Europe’s leading intergovernmental organization, which defends the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy, has criticized Turkey’s notorious intelligence agency, MIT, for its covert operations abroad aimed at intimidating critics, opponents and dissidents.
The report, written by British lawmaker Christopher Chope for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), highlights MIT’s role in kidnapping critics in other countries, in blatant violation of international and domestic laws .
“In September 2022, a businessman named Ugur Demirok was reportedly kidnapped in Baku by Turkish intelligence services (MIT) and handed over to Turkey,” the report said, adding that Turkish officials have openly claimed such operations on foreign soil and praised the role of MIT.
Demirok is reportedly affiliated with the Gülen movement, a group critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government due to widespread corruption within the administration and Turkey’s aiding and abetting of armed jihadist groups. . The movement has borne the brunt of government repression against opposition groups over the past decade, with around 2 million suspected members facing bogus criminal investigations.
The report, the first among Council of Europe bodies to tackle transnational repression and discuss legal standards for such practices, states that “transnational repression is a global phenomenon that attacks the foundations of democratic societies and the rule of law, and that strengthened and more coordinated action to prevent and combat is necessary.
PACE’s draft report on transnational repression highlighted Turkey’s role in kidnapping opponents abroad:
PACE_transnational_repression_raft_report
PACE called on states allegedly engaged in transnational repression to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and that victims receive reparations. To better prevent and combat transnational repression, it recommends that all states develop legal guidance for government agencies, impose targeted sanctions, and expel diplomats directly involved in incidents of transnational repression .
In fact, Switzerland, a member of the Council of Europe, was one of the countries in Europe that did exactly what the report recommends when Swiss authorities investigated the attempted kidnapping of a critic by MIT. Two Turkish diplomats, then press secretary Hacı Mehmet Gani and Hakan Kamil Yerge, then second secretary at the Turkish embassy in Bern, both suspected of being undercover MIT agents, plotted to drug and kidnap a man from Swiss-Turkish affairs in 2016.
In June 2018, the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants for the two Turkish diplomats and confirmed that they would be arrested upon entry into Switzerland. According to local reports, criminal proceedings against the two diplomats were launched in March 2017. Yerge left Switzerland in November 2016, while Gani remained there until August 2017.
Turkish diplomats were notably accused of having collected political intelligence for another state and of having attempted to kidnap a Swiss businessman of Turkish origin. The businessman would be affiliated with the Gülen group and had resided in Switzerland for around thirty years.
Turkey uses various means to ensure the forcible return of critics to its country, as part of the Erdogan government’s campaign of intimidation. Erdogan’s government even plotted to kidnap Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric residing in the United States and who inspired the movement, on American soil, as the Wall Street Journal reported in November 2017.
According to the PACE report, the Turkish government’s tactics rely on “renditions, abuse of extradition procedures, Interpol red notices, measures to combat terrorist financing and the co-optation of other States to illegally deport or transfer persons.” He noted that the Turkish government has a consistent policy of tracking down anyone linked to the Gülen movement.
“On September 6, 2018, the Republic of Moldova transferred seven teachers of Turkish nationality, bypassing national and international law. Kosovo was co-opted to illegally deport six Turkish teachers to Turkey on March 29, 2018. In both cases, accusations were made that the Turkish government received high-level political support for these operations, but only the leaders and officials from intelligence agencies have been informed. blamed,” the report said. The teachers worked for schools affiliated with the Gülen movement.
Since 2016, the Erdogan government has used extralegal methods to secure the return of its critics after its official extradition requests were rejected.
The PACE report follows similar concerns about such methods expressed by UN human rights bodies. In a joint letter, UN rapporteurs accused the Turkish government of engaging in a systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial kidnappings and forced returns to Turkey, with at least 100 Turkish nationals transferred from several states towards Turkey.
In several of these kidnapping cases, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrests, detentions and forcible transfers to Turkey of Turkish nationals were arbitrary and violated international norms and standards on kidnapping. of human rights.
Unlike other notorious countries like Russia and Iran, which publicly deny pursuing a policy of transitional repression, the Erdogan government openly boasts about implementing this policy and boasts about how it manages to kidnap and bringing critics from abroad to Turkey, often with the help of the intelligence service. In its annual report, MIT officially confirmed that it had carried out forced return operations of more than 100 people with alleged links to the Gülen movement.
“…(More than) 100 members of the (Gülen movement) from different countries were brought to Turkey thanks to (the agency’s) increased operational capacity abroad,” the 2022 MIT report said.
The undated 16-page report, written in March 2023, further admits to targeting journalists and media workers abroad. He writes that in 2022, “the work to decipher black propaganda attempts to undermine our country has continued uninterrupted.” “Black propaganda” refers to critical media coverage of Turkey by journalists who were forced to go into exile and pursue their careers abroad after Erdogan’s government began arresting journalists by the hundreds , wiping out almost all critical, independent and opposition media in Turkey. During the last decade.
In other words, while attempting to defend its record, MIT acknowledged its policy of targeting and harassing Turkish journalists who live in Europe and North America, where MIT agents conduct surveillance operations. illegal.
MIT’s spying on journalists in Europe was exposed last year when the agency disclosed surveillance photos and residential addresses of journalists living in Germany and Sweden as part of the government’s intimidation campaign Erdogan.
The PACE report also refers to this practice and takes the case of Turkish journalist Bülent Keneş as an example. “A pro-government newspaper revealed Mr. Keneş’s home address and published photos secretly taken in November 2022,” we read, recalling an article in the daily Sabah, a newspaper owned and operated by the Erdogan family. Surveillance photos and private information on Keneş and other journalists exiled in Europe were allegedly collected by intelligence services.
Report castigates President Erdogan for choosing Keneş’s extradition as a condition for Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership after the Swedish Supreme Court rejected the Turkish government’s extradition request . “This behavior is unacceptable to all who support the rule of law and serves as an example of the type of pressure that some countries seek to exert on others to continue what is essentially another aspect of transnational repression,” it said. The report.
PACE stressed that NGOs also highlighted the role of Turkish intelligence services in threatening and intimidating members of the Turkish opposition and journalists in exile and called on member states to avoid any cooperation with the services. Turkish intelligence.
Erdogan and his intelligence services have violently targeted critical journalists and dissident groups such as the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which incriminated former Prime Minister Erdogan, members of his family and his entourage . The Erdogan government often invokes abusive anti-terrorism laws to punish journalists, critics and human rights defenders, without any evidence to support the serious accusations against them.
Turkey’s transnational crackdown on critics abroad shows no signs of stopping. Most recently, Mehmet Cintosun, who went missing in Erbil, Iraq, on January 29, was revealed to be in police custody in Turkey when photos of him were made public by MIT on April 14.
