SETA: The evil affinity between Albayrak, Erdogan

Asmaa Al-Batakoushi

Turkish and Muslim Brotherhood arms in the Middle East are constantly tampering with the internal affairs of Arab countries to serve the devious schemes of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

SETA dispatched dozens of Tunisian experienced engineers and technicians to Libya to support Al-Wefaq government and its militia led by Fayez al-Sarraj.

Around 76 engineers and technicians received their two-month training in Eskişehir, Turkey, under the supervision of SETA, before being sent to Tripoli in March 2020.

The Turkish “SETA” Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Ankara supervised the training of 76 Tunisian engineers in the fields of chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical, communications and information technology engineering.

A report in November 2019 by the German government said the family of Berat Albayrak is the main source of funding for SETA. The German government’s statement on SETA came in response to a parliamentary question submitted by the Left Party about the think tank’s financial resources.

SETA attracted widespread criticism in July when it published a 200-page report on journalists who work for the Turkish services of foreign media outlets, profiling them based on their political leanings.

In its response the German government said: “According to information in the hands of the federal government, SETA is not a state-run organization. Its headquarters are in Ankara, and it has offices in İstanbul, Brussels, Washington, Cairo and since 2017 in Berlin. The pro-AK Party government institution is to a large extent financed by the Albayrak family.”

According to German government information, SETA receives significant financing from the Albayrak family, opposition Left party lawmaker Ulla Jelpke was told following a government information request.

The family is one of the most influential in Turkey. Sadik Albayrak is an old friend of Erdogan’s and has long been a part of the president’s most inner circle. As is his youngest son, Berat, who is married to Erdogan’s daughter and is currently Turkey’s finance minister. Ties to SETA are personal as well since Serhat Albayrak, who for years ran the company that owned the government-friendly Sabah media group, is also the foundation’s head.

SETA, however, declined to comment on the source of its funding.

In January 2020, the Egyptian National Security Sector was able to locate and seal down an apartment in Bab Al-Louk neighborhood in downtown Cairo, for operating undercover and without a license under the name of SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research.

SETA was mostly being operated by Muslim Brotherhood members and completely funded by Ankara to broadcast and prepare negative reports containing false and fabricated information on the political, economic, security and legal conditions in the country and send it to Turkey, with the aim of tarnishing the country’s image internally and internationally.

Four individuals, including three Egyptians and a Turkish citizen, were arrested after the raid while a fifth one, believed to be Turkish, is still on the run.

This suspicious SETA has been operating since 2005 under a banner reading “The Center for Political, Economic and Social Studies”, and its stated goal is to help the Turkish government analyze and understand issues related to Turkish foreign policy and other foreign policies of other countries.

Suspicions revolve around SETA of spying on the countries of the region, as the Turkish Journalists Association affirmed earlier that this center is preparing reports in cooperation with Turkish intelligence.

The SETA center is one of the largest centers and has several branches, its main headquarters is in Ankara and it has two large branches in Istanbul and Washington.