Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
In a fresh instance of abusing international mechanisms, the Turkish government has devised a covert plan to target the limited funding sources of journalists living in exile by falsely labeling them as criminals and placing their names on wanted lists alongside those of terrorists such as members of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), following the unlawful seizure of their assets in Turkey and the offering of bounties for their capture.
The plan, revealed in a recent Turkish Foreign Ministry document, aims to intensify pressure on Turkish journalists who are already grappling with numerous challenges, including threats and violence originating from the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and its proxy groups both within Turkey and abroad.
The report, titled “Foreign Ministry’s Strategic Plan for 2024–2028,” characterizes the work of exiled journalists as part of terrorist activity and propaganda and calls for intensified efforts to freeze their assets abroad and deny them access to banking and financial services.
According to information obtained by Nordic Monitor, the project has been assigned to the foreign ministry’s covert intelligence unit, the Security and Research Directorate (Araştırma ve Güvenlik İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü in Turkish), which was recently renamed the Intelligence and Research Directorate (İstihbarat ve Güvenlik İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü).
This unit has acquired expanded mandates and resources since Hakan Fidan, the former head of Turkey’s main intelligence agency, Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT), was appointed foreign minister last year. It is currently led by Fatma Ceren Yazgan, a veteran Turkish intelligence operative who played a key role in purging one-third of Turkish ambassadors and diplomats from the foreign service in 2016 and 2017.
Excerpts from the strategy document prepared by the Turkish Foreign Ministry for 2024–2028:
MFA_document_targeting_journalists
The plan replaces the Erdogan government’s failed efforts to secure the extradition of journalists from other countries, particularly in Western Europe and North America, where judicial bodies and governments have rejected Turkish demands, stating that what Turkey labels as terrorism is, in fact, a fundamental right protected in democratic societies under the freedoms of expression, speech and the press.
The Erdogan government is now distributing lists compiled by the police, which include the names of Turkish journalists alongside wanted terrorists from UN-recognized groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. The aim is to pressure banks and financial institutions to act on these lists, making the lives of these journalists even more difficult than they already are.
Part of this strategy is to create a chilling effect on journalists, intimidating them into silence and dissuading them from writing or speaking critically about the Erdogan government abroad. It also aims to undermine their credibility, discourage foreign associates from forming partnerships with them and ultimately force them to yield to mounting pressure.
The Erdogan government has decimated the critical and independent media in Turkey, shutting down hundreds of media outlets, including the nation’s leading newspapers and broadcast networks and jailing hundreds of journalists over the last decade. Many journalists fled Turkey to escape this unprecedented crackdown on the free and independent media, finding refuge in Western countries and continuing their work in exile.
The few remaining opposition media outlets in Turkey are under the control of the Erdogan government, compelled to echo regime narratives on fundamental issues, adhere to red lines imposed by Erdogan’s communications office and tread carefully to avoid risking imprisonment. Under these dire conditions, coverage of Turkey from abroad provides valuable insight into the Turkish government’s record by shedding light on the clandestine activities of President Erdogan and his associates to sustain his authoritarian regime.
The Erdogan government’s blatant abuse of international financial mechanisms to target critics, dissidents and opponents has already been documented by nongovernmental organizations, which have raised alarms about this sinister practice carried out by Turkish government agents.
In 2022 human rights advocacy group the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) published a report highlighting Turkey’s transnational repression, which included the misuse of asset-freezing mechanisms under the pretext of preventing terrorist financing.
“People whose names appear on the published lists have faced various repercussions including the freezing or closure of their accounts, negative credit scores and various other personal and financial difficulties in Western countries,” SCF pointed out.
The report warned that critics of the Erdogan government residing in Western countries are labeled as “terrorists” and “persons financing terrorism” by financial risk intelligence databases that serve banks and financial institutions, solely because their names appear on an arbitrary list published by the Erdogan government.
The Brussels-based Institute for Diplomacy and Economy (InstituDE) joined the chorus last month with a report titled “Weaponizing Financial Systems.” The report noted that the Erdogan government exploits anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regulations to tarnish the reputations of dissidents, including journalists.
“By manipulating open-source platforms, asset-freeze orders, INTERPOL systems, and directly influencing banks, the Erdogan government has weaponized financial services and international cooperation to suppress opposition and dissent,” the report stated. It said Turkey manipulates data to influence banks and financial institutions conducting checks using Know Your Customer (KYC) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) protocols, which include watchlist screenings.
“By feeding false, manipulated, and politically biased information about critics into these lists, the Erdogan government prompts financial institutions to label these individuals as ‘risky,’” the report said.
It added that “there is an urgent need for robust safeguards and increased scrutiny within financial institutions to protect the integrity of personal data usage and uphold the rights of individuals against authoritarian misuse.”
The first asset-freezing decision, an administrative action purportedly taken under Article 7, Paragraph 3 of Turkish Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of Financing Terrorism, was published in the Official Gazette on April 7, 2021 and included a list of 377 Turkish nationals. A second decision was published on December 24, 2021 for a list of 771 Turkish nationals. Both lists included the names of critical journalists who had been granted political asylum in the West.
Turkey has also included the names of journalists in its government-run wanted database, which is divided into five color-coded categories, with red designating the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and grey. Additionally, the Turkish police have announced cash rewards amounting to millions of Turkish lira for anyone who provides information leading to the capture of these journalists.
Although the Turkish government has so far failed to extradite any journalist to Turkey and imprison him or her, it has achieved some results by disseminating their names on asset freeze lists as “terrorists” and “persons financing terrorism.” To some extent, Turkey’s manipulation of data — including incorrect, misleading and defamatory information — has distorted the data collected by financial intelligence services that provide information to banks.
“This puts the targeted individuals in double or maybe triple jeopardy after fleeing the persecution of their own government and having to survive and establish a new life in a foreign country, and now being targeted once more by private corporations as a result of such defamatory information in violation of data protection laws,” SCF warned.
For example, there have been several complaints regarding Refinitiv World-Check Risk Intelligence, acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG) in 2021. The LSEG, which maintains an office in Istanbul, has been criticized for falsely identifying Turkish individuals who were granted political asylum in the West due to persecution by the Erdogan government. In one case of wrongful profiling involving a Turkish national, the LSEG had to settle with the victim, pay compensation and remove the erroneous information from its dataset.
The company’s US branch in California, Refinitiv US LLC, is also facing a class action lawsuit, filed by Turkish academics in the US District Court for the Central District of California on May 11, 2023. The Turkish academics accuse Refinitiv of wrongfully designating them as terrorists because of politically motivated charges leveled against them by the Turkish government. The case is still pending.
Similar instances of flagrant abuse have also been observed with the US-based payment service provider PayPal and the UK-based Wise PLC, both of which shut down accounts belonging to journalists and critics as a result of this manipulation, often without providing any explanation. Additionally, companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram have been involved in blocking transfers made by journalists based on the manipulated financial data disseminated by the Erdogan government.
This practice is part of a broader pattern of behavior exhibited by the Erdogan government, which is notorious for abusing international mechanisms to crack down on free and independent journalism. In the past Turkey attempted to have INTERPOL issue arrest warrants, known as Red Notices, against exiled journalists; however, the INTERPOL Secretariat rejected these requests, stating that they violated the organization’s constitution.
Turkey also attempted to revoke the credentials of critical journalists seeking to attend meetings at intergovernmental platforms such as the United Nations, labeling them as terrorists and thus designating them as security threats.
The Turkish government must be held accountable for its relentless efforts to intimidate exiled journalists. Its agents should be named and shamed for attempting to pressure these individuals, and the methods and instruments employed to achieve this goal need to be exposed.
