Repression: Erdogan recruits diplomats to spy on his opponents (Part 4)

Mahmoud al-Batakushi

In the previous parts of the “Repression” series, we discussed how the Turkish regime has exploited the intelligence services, gangs and Interpol to implement its suspicious policies against the opposition.

In this fourth part, we review how Erdogan has succeeded in transforming embassies and consulates into his arms, turning them into dens and tools for espionage, and how he began to run intelligence campaigns to collect data on organizations and people who reject the Turkish regime’s policies.

During the era of Erdogan, especially following the alleged July 2016 coup, it has become the task of Turkish diplomats to collect information about the activities of the opposition, describe their organizations and list their names, as if they were part of a terrorist organization.

The communications from them contain information on major opponents, including details about the structure of Fethullah Gülen’s Hizmet movement in each country and a complete list of people believed to be affiliated with it. The lists are also distributed to the Ministry of Justice and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in order to take further administrative or legal measures against persons who have been identified, punishing them or their relatives in Turkey and seizing their assets.

Erdogan’s lastest crimes in this context are confirmed by judicial documents, as Turkey’s diplomatic missions in Austria engaged in a campaign to collect intelligence and gathered information about the activities of opponents of the regime. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was notified of the names of Turkish teachers, representatives of local associations and businessmen living in Austria, and then the information was used later in criminal indictments on terrorism charges by the Turkish public prosecutor. Accordingly, the public prosecutor opened a separate investigation into 13 Turkish citizens in Austria who were spied on by Turkish diplomats in the country, without any concrete evidence of wrongdoing, although the most prominent accusation is belonging to Hizmet.

Opponents of Erdogan abroad, especially members of the Gulen movement, face surveillance, harassment, death threats and kidnapping, and they are often denied consular services such as power of attorney and birth registration, as well as having their passports withdrawn. Their assets are seized in Turkey, and their family members face criminal charges at home.

A secret Turkish government report also revealed the extent of the infamous and secret espionage activities among the Lithuanian Muslim community by a Turkish imam who worked under diplomatic cover outside the Turkish embassy. Among the 16 people who were spied on in Lithuania, the government revoked the passports of 12 of them, and only two faced a lawsuit. In Turkey, the report indicates that they will all be subject to punitive measures in Turkey because of their personal beliefs and their critical stance against the Erdogan government.

Secret documents also confirmed that Turkish diplomats in Kyrgyzstan spied on opponents of the regime and sent secret files to Ankara. The Turkish public prosecutor opened an investigation into 25 citizens who had files on them by Turkish diplomats in Kyrgyzstan without any tangible evidence of committing any violations. Among those investigated were former correspondents of the Turkish newspaper Zaman, which the government seized, in addition to academics, teachers and doctors who had been living in the country and working in Kyrgyz institutions for decades. The list also included opponents who were forced to live in exile to escape the persecution of the regime.

It is noteworthy that, according to judicial documents, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has compiled a long list of foreign entities owned or managed by people perceived to be close to the Gülen movement in 92 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

The strange thing is that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had previously confirmed in February, after the Munich Security Conference, the espionage activities carried out by Turkish diplomatic missions in foreign lands, saying, “The Turkish diplomats appointed in embassies and consulates have received official instructions from the government to conduct such activities abroad, and that gathering intelligence information is the duty of diplomats.”

It is worth noting that the immunities and privileges of diplomats are subject to international agreements, and they are obligated to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving state, avoid interference in its internal affairs, and that they not carry out illegal information-gathering campaigns or large-scale intelligence operations, which makes them vulnerable to international or domestic prosecution in foreign countries, according to Article 43 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs.