Turkey sends senior intelligence operative as ambassador to Austria with a covert mission

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

The appointment of a senior intelligence official as Turkey’s envoy in Vienna — a key hub for international diplomacy — reflects a deliberate strategy by Ankara to expand its covert operations globally, with a particular emphasis on Eastern and Central Europe, Nordic Monitor has learned.

Gürsel Dönmez, the 61-year-old newly appointed Turkish ambassador to Austria, began his official duties in Vienna at the start of 2025. For years he served in Turkey’s primary intelligence agency, Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT), where he trained spies, developed foreign assets and helped shape the ideological foundation on which the agency operates.

Working closely with Hakan Fidan — who led Turkey’s intelligence agency for over a decade before becoming foreign minister in 2023 — Dönmez played a key role in shaping the framework of a new neo-Ottomanist strategy in the heart of the Turkish intelligence community. His books and manuals became essential reference materials for new recruits, laying the groundwork for Turkey’s ambitious transnational agenda under the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Dönmez’s writings make clear that intelligence and espionage lie at the core of the Turkish state, driving the fundamental policies of the government. This aligns with the practices of the Erdogan administration, which heavily relies on MIT to execute political projects both domestically and abroad. These efforts include influence operations, mass surveillance, false flag tactics and crackdowns on opposition, critics and dissidents.

Turkish presidential decree announcing the appointment of Gürsel Dönmez as ambassador to Austria:

While training MIT agents in internal courses, Dönmez also played a key role in coordinating intelligence operations in the Balkans and expanding the agency’s influence in various Turkish institutions. These included the Turkish Development and Cooperation Agency (Türk İşbirliği ve Koordinasyon Ajansı, or TİKA), the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (Yurtdışı Türkler ve Akraba Topluluklar Başkanlığı, or YTB), the government’s cultural arm abroad, the Yunus Emre Institute, and the Maarif Foundation, an entity focused on indoctrination and proselytizing.

Dönmez’s appointment as Turkey’s ambassador to Austria marks the culmination of his career and, in many ways, a homecoming. He spent 22 years in Austria, where he was actively involved with Islamist groups. For example, he served as the head of the Union of International Democrats (UID, formerly UETD) — a political extension of Turkish President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) — from 2006 to 2009.

The UID serves as a key conduit for President Erdogan to mobilize Turkish and Muslim communities, particularly in Europe, where significant Turkish and Muslim diasporas reside. When Erdogan seeks to convey a message to European capitals, he often relies on this proxy group to organize rallies and demonstrations on European streets.

Dönmez also served as the secretary-general of the Austrian branch of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (Müstakil Sanayici ve İşadamları Derneği, or MÜSİAD), an Islamist business group known for its unwavering support of the Erdogan government. President Erdogan frequently includes MÜSİAD members in his official visits abroad, facilitating lucrative business opportunities for them.

Some of Turkey’s intelligence operations abroad have been financed through MÜSİAD, with MIT embedding its agents in the organization. This allows operatives to conceal their identities and gain access to strategic locations under the guise of business dealings.

Dönmez’s efforts were recognized by then-prime minister, now President Erdogan, who brought him back to Turkey in August 2009 and appointed him as an advisor in the Office of the Prime Ministry. Simultaneously, he was assigned a secondary role as deputy president of the YTB, a position that served as a cover for his covert mission to coordinate intelligence operations among Turkish diaspora communities in Europe, particularly in the Balkans.

Dönmez worked closely with Hakan Fidan, who was serving as the deputy undersecretary of the Prime Ministry at the time. This close collaboration continued after Fidan was appointed head of the MIT in 2010. In 2015 Dönmez made an unsuccessful attempt to enter parliament by running as a candidate from Erdogan’s party.

In July 2018 Dönmez returned to his roots at the intelligence agency, where he played a key role in transforming the organization into a political tool for the Erdogan regime. He delivered lectures to young recruits and authored manuals and books for the agency’s internal training programs.

When Fidan became foreign minister in 2023, he brought Dönmez with him to the Foreign Ministry, aiming to enlist his expertise in transforming the diplomatic service into a sprawling intelligence apparatus. As he had done at the intelligence agency, Dönmez also authored a guide on conducting Turkish foreign policy, with Fidan providing the main parameters.

His appointment to Austria as the Turkish ambassador marks a new escalation in Turkey’s clandestine activities across Central and Eastern Europe.

The Erdogan government puts special significance on Austria, not only because of Vienna’s key geopolitical position between Eastern and Western Europe and its status as a hub for international organizations, but also due to its symbolic importance within the context of the Ottoman legacy. Erdogan’s core political Islamist base is energized by the idea of the Turks one day conquering Vienna — a city the Ottomans attempted to seize twice but ultimately failed to capture.

The defeat at Vienna remains vivid in the minds of today’s Turkish leadership, who invoke it periodically to convey irredentist messages and justify aggressive foreign policy posturing when necessary. For instance, in a speech delivered in October 2019, President Erdogan revisited the Ottoman siege of Vienna, expressing regret over the retreat to the Evros River. He asserted that while his ancestors never lost their dignity, they emphasized that great sacrifices and efforts lay behind their victories, just as significant sorrow accompanied their losses.

In a speech delivered at a rally in March 2012, Erdogan claimed that had the Turks conquered Vienna, all of Europe would have been theirs. He lamented how Turkish territory had shrunk from 22 million square kilometers during the Ottoman era to just 780,000 square kilometers today.

In 2018, enraged by the Austrian government’s crackdown on Turkish spy imams, Erdogan vowed retaliation, stating that Austria’s actions amounted to the launch of a war between the Cross and the Crescent.

It remains to be seen how far Dönmez will be willing to push the boundaries of diplomatic immunity and privileges to conduct his espionage activities and advance Erdogan’s political objectives while serving in Vienna. Similarly, it’s unclear how far Austrian authorities will tolerate such actions before they escalate, potentially straining bilateral relations.