The ruling Islamist party in
Turkey, along with its far-right nationalist ally, has launched a covert
plan to target perceived Israeli and Jewish interests, which they deem
an existential threat to their political survival and grip on power in a
nation of 88 million predominantly Sunni Muslims.
The
multifaceted and layered plan, confirmed to Nordic Monitor by multiple
sources, entails crafting a hateful narrative to vilify Israel through
the predominantly government-controlled Turkish media, launching a
crackdown on Jewish networks and their affiliates via judicial and
administrative measures and issuing confidential circulars across
government agencies to obstruct the activities of Jewish businesspeople
and their associates.
The plan proposes a range of actions, including
scapegoating and conflating Jews with the Israeli government,
deliberately spreading misinformation, and conducting mass surveillance
of Turkey’s Jewish minority.
The plan proposes a range of actions, including scapegoating and
conflating Jews with the Israeli government, deliberately spreading
misinformation, conducting mass surveillance of Turkey’s Jewish minority
and Israeli nationals visiting or transiting the country and
orchestrating the persecution of Jews.
The public outline of the
plan was indirectly signaled by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
who since last year has spoken about Israel as a national security
threat, claimed that the Jewish state intends to target Turkey following
the Gaza conflict and praised Hamas as defenders of Turkey’s territory.
Although
Israel has denied any intention of attacking Turkey, and the Turkish
government has yet to provide evidence to support such claims, the
Erdoğan regime seems determined to deliberately fuel these fears. This
appears to serve as a justification for its current and potential
actions against Israeli and Jewish interests.
Erdoğan and his
nationalist ally, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the far-right Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP), believe that Israel has mobilized its regional and
global resources to undermine their hold on power in Turkey. Their
paranoia has been further exacerbated by what they view as a more
pro-Israel stance under Donald Trump’s second presidency in the United
States.
To counter this perceived threat, Erdoğan has tasked the
country’s top national security agency with formulating a framework
policy on Israel in particular and Jews in general that would have
wide-ranging implications across various government agencies and
institutions.
Efforts to classify Israel as a national threat have
been underway for some time at the National Security Council (Milli
Güvenlik Konseyi, MGK), a powerful body often described as a shadow
government, responsible for shaping interagency policies on domestic and
external security issues.
The first indication of Israel being
designated as a primary adversary came from Erdoğan during his opening
speech for the new legislative session on October 1, 2024. The
parliamentary venue was deliberately chosen to maximize the platform’s
reach, as it represents multiple parties elected by the broader
population.
To lend further credibility to Erdoğan’s claims,
the Turkish Parliament was directed to hold a closed session on October 8
to discuss Israeli threats to Turkey.
“After Lebanon, the next place Israel will set its sights on, let me
say it openly, will be our homeland. [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu
is including Anatolia [Turkey’s main territory in Asia] in his dreams.
To those who say, ‘Turkey should remain neutral,’ and to those who call
Hamas a terrorist organization, I say this: What we are facing is not a
state, but a bloodthirsty gang of murderers,” the president said.
To
lend further credibility to Erdoğan’s claims, the Turkish Parliament
was directed to hold a closed session on October 8 to discuss Israeli
threats to Turkey, with briefings from Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler. The minutes of the session have been
sealed under a confidentiality order, as is customary for such rare
assemblies in the Turkish legislature.
Erdoğan continued to echo
similar remarks in subsequent speeches, further embedding the narrative
of Israel as Turkey’s enemy in the national psyche and reinforcing an
artificially constructed new threat. On November 10 he went as far as
claiming that Israel posed a nuclear weapons threat to Turkey.
“A
catastrophe, a crime against humanity, is unfolding in front of the
entire world. The ones [Israelis] seizing the lands the Palestinian
people have lived in for thousands of years have created a state [in
Israel] with a controversial history of only 75 years. Not content with
this, they are also threatening to use nuclear weapons, including our
country in their promised land and challenging our patience with their
technological superiority and oppression,” he said.
The Turkish
president warned that Israel would soon face consequences and wake up
from its immature dreams. This was the first time Erdoğan made reference
to a Zionist conspiracy, suggesting the establishment of a promised
land where a greater Israel might eventually annex parts of Turkish
territory.
He repeated the same claim in a broader context on
November 11, delivering a speech in Riyadh during the extraordinary
joint Islamic-Arab summit convened to discuss the Israeli-Hamas
conflict. “The expression of unfounded notions about promised lands that
pose a threat to the territorial integrity of many countries in the
region, including Turkey, is the most explicit evidence of this
[aggression],” he stated.
Other senior Turkish officials also
lined up to endorse the president’s perspective. In response to a
reporter’s question on November 23, Hulusi Akar, a former general who
served as chief of general staff and defense minister and currently
heads the parliamentary Defense Committee, said the following:
“The expression of unfounded notions about
promised lands that pose a threat to the territorial integrity of many
countries in the region, including Turkey, is the most explicit evidence
of this [aggression].”
“Is Israel a threat to us or not? It’s a threat, a massive threat.
Can the great state of Turkey, with its 85 million citizens, leave their
lives to chance? Does it have weapons? Yes. Does it have ammunition?
Yes. Is there distance? Yes. Everything is in place except for timing.
It’s a matter of timing. So it could happen. Of course, we need to be
prepared for this.”
Such remarks were not only intended to shape
public opinion in Turkey regarding Israel but also to pave the way for
fundamental changes to the National Security Political Document (Milli
Güvenlik Siyaset Belgesi, MGSB). This top-secret document, often
referred to as Turkey’s “secret constitution” or the “Red Book,” has a
unique status, carrying greater influence and priority than other legal
texts that govern the actions of Turkish government institutions.
The
change was officially adopted in a revised version of the Red Book
during a meeting of the MGK on January 22, chaired by President Erdoğan.
The last revision of the MGSB occurred in 2020, at which time Israel
was excluded from the policy.
As part of this fundamental shift,
the Turkish intelligence agency (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MIT) was
tasked with developing a comprehensive action plan to limit Israeli
influence in Turkey. This included cracking down on
intelligence-gathering activities by Mossad, particularly those
targeting Hamas and Iranian proxies operating in Turkish territory.
Erdoğan
has been a staunch supporter of Hamas, rejecting the group’s
designation as a terrorist organization. His government has provided
shelter to top Hamas operatives in Turkey, even granting them
citizenship. Turkey allows Hamas to raise funds, access the Turkish
financial and banking systems to move money and provides logistical
support to its members.
MIT provides close protection to several
Hamas leaders operating out of Turkey. In recent years, MIT has led a
series of sweeping operations involving detentions, indictments and
criminal trials targeting individuals that Turkish authorities have
labeled as Mossad assets and agents. These campaigns are widely
publicized in the government-controlled Turkish media, further
reinforcing the narrative that Israel seeks to cause harm to Turkey.
In recent years, MIT has led a series of sweeping
operations involving detentions, indictments and criminal trials
targeting individuals that Turkish authorities have labeled as Mossad
assets and agents.
The action plan also aims to marginalize and isolate individuals in
media, politics, business, academia and the arts — sectors where the
Erdoğan government believes undue influence is being exerted in shaping
public opinion in Turkey. In extreme cases, some of these individuals
have been recommended for arrest on fabricated charges and through sham
criminal investigations, all in an effort to weaken Israeli and Jewish
influence on the national agenda.
Nongovernmental organizations
believed to be pro-Israel will also face mounting pressure from Turkish
authorities, who will fabricate various pretexts to target them and
their staff. These organizations will endure targeted inspections,
politically motivated investigations by administrative authorities and
intense scrutiny of their finances.
The plan envisions both covert
and overt actions orchestrated by the Turkish president’s
Communications Office (Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Başkanlığı), headed by
Fahrettin Altun, often likened to a modern-day Joseph Goebbels. Altun is
tasked with shaping the editorial policies of the Turkish media — both
pro-government and co-opted opposition outlets — in order to control the
national narrative regarding Israel and Jews.
Erdoğan’s
neo-nationalist (Ulusalcı) ally, Doğu Perinçek, leader of the Homeland
Party (Vatan Partisi), is also complicit in this disinformation
campaign. Many commentators in the Turkish media are believed to be
Perinçek assets, having long portrayed Israel and the United States as
Turkey’s primary enemies. This group is openly pro-Iran and supportive
of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, advocating for Turkey’s break from the
West and NATO.
Erdoğan’s political ally, HÜDA-PAR, the political
arm of Turkey’s pro-Iran Hizbullah group, is also intensifying an
anti-Jewish campaign in the country. The group, which entered the
Turkish Parliament through Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) in the last election, proposed a bill to revoke the Turkish
citizenship of dual Israeli-Turkish nationals, confiscate their assets
and pursue criminal prosecution against them.
The bill, endorsed
by Erdoğan’s party, was fast-tracked to the General Assembly without
going through the usual committee process, a rare and unusual practice
in the Turkish Parliament. While it has not yet been put to a vote, it
remains pending, awaiting the right moment to be revisited. Hizbullah
claims that many Turkish Jews are serving in the Israeli army as
conscripts, volunteers, reservists or in logistical support roles.
One of the most troubling talking points,
perpetrated by government-directed social media trolls, is the claim
that some Jews in Turkey conceal their true identities in order to harm
the nation’s security.
More extreme talking points will be disseminated to the Turkish
public through social media trolls and bots controlled by Altun’s
communications office. To distance the government from these efforts and
avoid accusations of antisemitism, some of this dirty work will be
outsourced. A flurry of activity across various social media platforms,
particularly X and Telegram, is already underway, spreading
conspiracies, lies and distorted narratives about exaggerated Jewish
influence and power in Turkey.
One of the most troubling talking
points, perpetrated by government-directed social media trolls, is the
claim that some Jews in Turkey conceal their true identities in order to
harm the nation’s security. This narrative draws on the myth of the
Sabataycılar (a secret Jewish community that follows Sabbatai Sevi and
is said to pretend to be Muslim), among other groups, and attributes
Jewish identity to anyone perceived as a threat to the rule of President
Erdogan and his allies.
Turkey, a country that has descended into
authoritarian rule with little to no checks on Erdoğan’s near-absolute
power, has seen a decade-long erosion of the rule of law and a blatant
disregard for fundamental human rights. Various groups, including Kurds,
members of the Gülen movement and the Alevi community, have long
suffered under the rule of Islamist-nationalist politicians who have
seized power, dismantled democratic institutions, eliminated an
independent judiciary, co-opted the political opposition and silenced
the critical press.
Now Turkey’s rulers are focused on targeting
Jews, using the conflict between Israel and Hamas as a pretext to mask
their true intentions.
Published originally under the title “Turkey’s Covert Campaign Against Jews and Israel Has Been Steadily Intensifying.”
