Thursday, October 9, 2025
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
  • About Us

Documents show Turkey sets conditions in international agreements to benefit Erdoğan’s long arm abroad

October 8, 2021
A A
Documents show Turkey sets conditions in international agreements to benefit Erdoğan’s long arm abroad
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Levent Kenez/Stockholm

Turkey puts clauses in bilateral friendship and development cooperation agreements, particularly with underdeveloped and African countries, that give diplomatic and financial benefit to the employees of the state institutions which carry out the secret Islamist agenda of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, including covert intelligence operations, a Nordic Monitor study has found.

One of these institutions is the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), a state institution that works to elevate Erdogan’s image, especially among poor Muslim and African countries, with humanitarian aid and the joint projects it finances. TİKA, which actually operates like a ruling party organization, is specifically named as the implementing authority in the many cooperation agreements Turkey has signed with these countries. 

According to the agreement with Somalia, which was approved by Erdoğan on June 1, 2021, TIKA employees are granted diplomatic immunity.

These bilateral agreements not only authorize TİKA to open an office in a foreign country but also allow TIKA employees to serve as diplomatic personnel, enjoying immunity and free movement. For instance, TİKA employees will benefit from the privileges and immunities accorded to diplomatic missions and diplomatic agents in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations according to the cooperation agreement signed with Chad, which was approved by Erdoğan last week. The same articles are included in similar agreements signed with other African countries. Earlier agreements Nordic Monitor reviewed do not include a clause on the diplomatic immunity of TİKA or related agency personnel. TİKA personnel and their families are also exempt from all kinds of taxes in countries where the agreements are signed. 

The cooperation agreement with Chad went into effect last week.

TİKA is a highly controversial organization that is frequently portrayed as the long arm of Erdoğan abroad. Nordic Monitor previously reported how the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) recruited spies using nongovernmental organizations including TİKA. According to a well-placed government insider, MIT planted operatives in several key government agencies that deal with Turks and non-Turkish Muslim communities abroad to run the vetting and recruitment program. The agencies that were used for covert intelligence operations are identified as TİKA and the Presidency for Turks Abroad, and Related Communities (YTB) diaspora agency. 

TIKA operates more like Erdoğan’s PR firm rather than a state institution.

“First, assets that were selected as candidates for future operatives were hired on a temporary contract basis by government agencies such as YTB, TİKA and others. Once a determination was made that they would be valuable to the spy agency, they were transferred to MIT and put permanently on the payroll,” the source said.

Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan runs clandestine operations in Central Asia and the Caucasus through a relative he had planted at TIKA, Nordic Monitor had earlier learned. According to a source, Fidan has been masking covert operations through his brother-in-law Ali Özgün Öztürk, who is in charge of the TIKA Department for Central Asia and the Caucasus. A review of Öztürk’s travel itinerary shows that he is certainly no ordinary aid and development worker. He has been creating a network of informants in foreign countries and gaining access to officials using his development, aid and culture work.

African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahama visited TIKA last week and had a photo taken in front of the Erdoğan poster with TIKA President Serkan Kayalar.

Last February Nordic Monitor revealed that TİKA illegally transferred money allocated from discretionary funds to its office in Gaza for the use of Hamas by way of official trips. TİKA employees who made official visits to Gaza to monitor ongoing projects were paid a travel allowance from secret discretionary funds and they left all the cash at TİKA’s office in Gaza without getting a receipt upon the order of their supervisors.

Given the fact that TİKA is using discretionary funds that are exempt from a Court of Accounts audit, Nordic Monitor learned that systematic corruption is the normal way of doing business at TİKA. The projects are overestimated on paper so that a small portion of the budget is the actual expense and the rest of the money is shared by bureaucrats at every level.

 

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Turkey opposed special protection of minorities, women and LGBTI in Taliban’s Afghanistan

Next Post

Spying by Turkish diplomats in Mozambique triggered criminal investigation in Turkey, documents reveal

Levent Kenez

Levent Kenez

[email protected]

Next Post
Spying by Turkish diplomats in Mozambique triggered criminal investigation in Turkey, documents reveal

Spying by Turkish diplomats in Mozambique triggered criminal investigation in Turkey, documents reveal

Germany struggles with the prosecution of never-ending Turkish espionage cases

Germany struggles with the prosecution of never-ending Turkish espionage cases

October 9, 2025
Turkey shifts to US partnership for second nuclear plant once promised to Russia

Turkey shifts to US partnership for second nuclear plant once promised to Russia

October 8, 2025
Murder raises new questions about Turkey’s fight against ISIS

Murder raises new questions about Turkey’s fight against ISIS

October 7, 2025
Turkey’s release of ISIS detainees fuels European terrorism threat, Dutch court case shows

Turkey’s release of ISIS detainees fuels European terrorism threat, Dutch court case shows

October 6, 2025
Erdogan pushes for northern Cyprus election win amid allegations of interference and mafia links

Erdogan pushes for northern Cyprus election win amid allegations of interference and mafia links

October 3, 2025
Erdoğan government believed Muslim Brotherhood would make a huge comeback in Egypt in few years

Turkey’s top court quashes terrorism conviction of 2 Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members

October 2, 2025
Turkey emerges as key haven for Iranian who launched $88M Bittrex crypto case

Turkey emerges as key haven for Iranian who launched $88M Bittrex crypto case

October 1, 2025
Turkish military journal claims NATO is using Ankara without giving it a voice

Turkish military journal claims NATO is using Ankara without giving it a voice

September 30, 2025
$100 billion OmegaPro scandal highlights Turkey’s role as a haven for global fraudsters

$100 billion OmegaPro scandal highlights Turkey’s role as a haven for global fraudsters

September 29, 2025
Turkey shifts away from Russia with new gas deals, hoping to win Trump’s favor

Turkey shifts away from Russia with new gas deals, hoping to win Trump’s favor

September 26, 2025

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor is a news web site and tracking site that is run by the Stockholm-based Nordic Research and Monitoring Network. It covers religious, ideological and ethnic extremist movements and radical groups, with a special focus on Turkey.

Tags

al-Qaeda Andrei Karlov Cyprus Diyanet Egypt Erdogan espionage Germany Greece Gülen Movement Hakan Fidan Hamas Hulusi Akar Ibrahim Kalın IHH Iran IRGC Quds Force ISIL ISIS Isis al-qaida Israel Libya Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı MIT Muslim Brotherhood NATO President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Profiling Qatar Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Russia SADAT spying Spying Activities Suleyman Soylu Sweden Syria Torture Turkey Turkish Intelligence Turkish Intelligence Agency Turkish intelligence agency MIT Ukraine United States

Recent News

Germany struggles with the prosecution of never-ending Turkish espionage cases

Germany struggles with the prosecution of never-ending Turkish espionage cases

October 9, 2025
Turkey shifts to US partnership for second nuclear plant once promised to Russia

Turkey shifts to US partnership for second nuclear plant once promised to Russia

October 8, 2025
Murder raises new questions about Turkey’s fight against ISIS

Murder raises new questions about Turkey’s fight against ISIS

October 7, 2025

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.