Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A leaked Turkish government document obtained by Nordic Monitor reveals that Turkish intelligence operatives conducted surveillance activities in France to collect information on a group critical of the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The document, prepared by two officials identified only by their badge numbers, shows that Turkish operatives monitored a peaceful demonstration in the French city of Strasbourg, near the German border, where Turkish dissidents gathered to protest widespread human rights violations in Turkey.
The event reportedly attracted some 5,000 participants, including European politicians, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), academics, activists and public figures.
Although the document does not explicitly identify the intelligence agency involved, it states that the information was transmitted to police authorities by an “affiliated institution” (iltisaklı kurum), a term Turkish authorities often use to conceal the origin of intelligence reports. The phrase typically refers to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) or other intelligence units operating under the Foreign Ministry or the Security Directorate General (Emniyet).
Such wording is frequently employed to obscure the source of intelligence in order to minimize diplomatic fallout if covert operations conducted abroad become public.
Turkish authorities often disguise intelligence gathered through covert field operations abroad by incorporating references to open-source material and publicly available social media content into intelligence reports that are later circulated among government agencies. This practice serves to obscure the true origin of the information, shielding from scrutiny intelligence officers, informants and other assets deployed on foreign soil while providing Turkish authorities with plausible deniability if the operation is exposed.
A leaked Turkish government document reveals that Turkish agents conducted surveillance operations on French soil targeting critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
The document reviewed by Nordic Monitor reveals the same pattern. Although it portrays the information as having been compiled from publicly accessible sources, the details contained in the report indicate that Turkish operatives conducted surveillance activities on the ground during the Strasbourg demonstration. The inclusion of open-source references appears designed to conceal the extent of the intelligence-gathering operation and mask the involvement of Turkish agents who monitored participants and collected personal information at the event.
Such methods have become a common feature of Turkish intelligence reporting in recent years. By blending covertly obtained information with material available on the internet, authorities seek to create the impression that the intelligence was lawfully acquired while minimizing the risk of exposing clandestine networks operating in foreign countries. The tactic also helps protect informants and intelligence assets from identification and reduces the likelihood of diplomatic repercussions if surveillance activities targeting political dissidents abroad are uncovered.
The document nevertheless provides important clues regarding both the origin of the intelligence and the target of the operation, which appears to have been authorized as part of the Erdogan government’s broader campaign to monitor and intimidate critics beyond Turkey’s borders.
According to the document, the intelligence report was transmitted to the Ankara Police Department on July 22, 2025. Turkish operatives reportedly monitored the demonstration held near Council of Europe (CoE) headquarters in Strasbourg and compiled detailed intelligence notes on the event and its participants.
Individuals identified at the gathering were flagged and their names circulated among various Turkish government institutions, including prosecutors’ offices. In many similar cases, such information has been used to initiate criminal investigations into critics of the government on terrorism-related accusations, despite their participation in lawful and peaceful activities abroad.
The document specifically references one individual who was singled out for further scrutiny. Additional background research was reportedly conducted on the person and later submitted to a court in Ankara by police chief Engin Aydın on May 18, 2026, as supplementary evidence in an ongoing case. The individual, who currently resides in Germany and has been granted political asylum, had previously been tried in absentia by the same court.
The targeting of Erdogan critics through terrorism investigations has become a recurring feature of Turkey in the last decade. Human rights organizations and international observers have repeatedly criticized Turkish authorities for abusing broad counterterrorism laws to silence dissent, intimidate critics and suppress opposition voices.
The document reveals that intelligence obtained through surveillance activities in France was later transmitted to a Turkish court by Ankara police chief Engin Aydın in May 2026, where it was incorporated into judicial proceedings against a government critic:
The Strasbourg demonstration was organized by the Peaceful Actions Platform, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations operating across Europe. Participants called on the Turkish government to comply with binding rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which has repeatedly found Turkey in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Demonstrators also urged the CoE to take stronger measures to ensure Turkey implements the court’s judgments.
The coalition has organized annual demonstrations in Strasbourg since 2022 to draw attention to what it describes as systematic human rights violations in Turkey and Ankara’s persistent refusal to execute ECtHR rulings, which are binding on Turkey.
The June 25, 2025, protest, held under the slogan “Justice for Everyone,” attracted participants from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and other European countries. Demonstrators marched toward the Council of Europe headquarters carrying banners and portraits of jailed politicians, academics and civil servants while chanting, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Participants urged the Council of Europe to hold Turkey accountable for its continued failure to implement landmark ECtHR judgments, including those concerning philanthropist Osman Kavala, Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş and former teacher Yüksel Yalçınkaya.
The group also delivered letters to Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset, Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty and ECtHR President Mattias Guyomar, urging their institutions to take stronger action regarding Turkey’s human rights record.
The rally received support from several members of PACE, some of whom addressed the crowd. Speakers included Laura Castel of Spain, Vinzenz Glaser of Germany, Benjamin Dalle of Belgium, Emmanuel Fernandes of France, Christophe Lacroix of Belgium and Sandra Regol of France.
At the center of the Yalçınkaya case is Turkey’s crackdown on the Gülen movement, a faith-based civic initiative inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen. For decades the movement operated schools, charities and educational institutions in Turkey and abroad.
The Turkish government began targeting followers of the movement after corruption investigations in 2013 implicated senior government officials and members of Erdogan’s inner circle. Erdogan accused the movement of orchestrating the probes, a claim denied by the movement, and subsequently launched a sweeping campaign against its members and perceived supporters.
The crackdown intensified following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, that evidence indicates was a false-flag operation orchestrated by Turkish intelligence agency MIT. The operation provided the pretext for an unprecedented purge, enabled President Erdogan to expand his powers and facilitated the removal of military commanders who opposed Turkey’s intervention in Syria and its support for jihadist groups.
In the aftermath hundreds of thousands of people were investigated on fabricated terrorism-related or coup-linked accusations over their alleged ties to the Gülen movement. Tens of thousands have been imprisoned, while many others have been dismissed from public-sector jobs, had their assets seized or were forced into exile.
Despite the ECtHR’s landmark 2023 judgment in the Yalçınkaya case, which found serious violations of fundamental rights, Turkish courts have continued to issue rulings based on similar legal reasoning. In 2024 a Turkish court reimposed Yalçınkaya’s sentence despite the Strasbourg judgment.
Last month the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR issued another significant ruling in Yasak v. Turkey, finding that Turkey violated the principle of “no punishment without law” as well as the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. The case concerned Şaban Yasak, 39, who was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization over alleged links to the Gülen movement and was held for years in overcrowded prison conditions.
The ruling is expected to affect hundreds of similar applications currently pending before the Strasbourg court. Yet Turkish authorities have so far failed to implement its judgements, reinforcing concerns about Ankara’s compliance with its obligations under the European human rights system.
Meanwhile, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has yet to initiate infringement proceedings over Turkey’s failure to execute several major ECtHR judgments, a stance that has sparked criticism from human rights advocates, legal experts and lawmakers across Europe.
The Strasbourg surveillance operation fits a broader pattern of intelligence-gathering activities conducted by Turkish authorities across Europe in recent years. Court documents, parliamentary inquiries and criminal investigations in several European countries have revealed how Turkish diplomatic missions, intelligence officers and government-linked informants have collected information on journalists, political dissidents, Kurdish activists, members of the Gülen movement and other critics of President Erdogan.
German authorities have repeatedly warned about Turkish espionage activities targeting dissidents living in Germany, which hosts the largest Turkish diaspora community in Europe. Similar concerns have been raised in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, where local security services have documented efforts by Turkish operatives and informant networks to monitor, photograph and report on critics of the Turkish government.
French authorities have also closely monitored the activities of Turkish nationalist and Islamist groups operating on French soil, particularly after a series of diplomatic disputes between Paris and Ankara in recent years. The latest document suggests that Turkish intelligence services continue to view political exiles and human rights activists in Europe as priority targets, even when their activities consist solely of peaceful demonstrations protected under European law.
The intelligence collected abroad often finds its way into criminal case files in Turkey, where prosecutors use information gathered by intelligence agencies to open investigations or support ongoing prosecutions. Human rights advocates argue that such practices amount to the transnational repression of political opponents and represent an attempt by the Erdogan government to extend its crackdown beyond Turkey’s borders.
