During pandemic, when every nation in the world is giving priority to public health safety and providing vaccine, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his intelligence agency is spending millions of dollars towards various Muslim groups as well as terrorist and separatist outfits inside India with the agenda of paving path of further spread of Islam. According to recent intelligence reports, intelligence agency of Turkey is spending splendidly towards Indian Muslims and separatist groups while recruiting religious extremists with the target of destabilizing India. The intel report also accuses the Turkish Embassy in Delhi of forging alliances with Indian NGOs, pointing that Indian activists who serve Ankara’s agenda are increasingly being sent to Turkey on exposure trips and encouraged to speak against India.
The intelligence report further said, Turkey has been providing lucrative scholarships and running exchange programs for Indian Kashmiri and Muslim students to study in Turkey through state-sponsored NGOs. Once the students land in Turkey, they are approached and taken over by the Pakistan proxies operating there. One of the main Turkish NGOs providing scholarship to Indian Muslims is Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA).
TÜGVA, an organization controlled by Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan, plays a crucial role in the dissemination of Erdoğan’s radical Islamist ideology and in controlling the religious realm of Turkish society. President Erdoğan described the aim of TÜGVA and other family organizations as “working for the construction of a new civilization,” and they act as quasi-official regime charities. This organization has developed strong links within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organization’s student wing, Student Islamic Organization (SIO).
According to eminent Turkish journalist and research-scholar Abdullah Bozkurt, the ideological underpinnings of family foundations are rooted in political Islamist activism with alarming jihadist leanings. When examined as to who drives the ideological basis for these foundations, two controversial names come to light. One is Hayrettin Karaman, also known as the chief fatwa (religious edict) giver for Erdoğan, whom he effectively declared caliph. Karaman, who openly advocated the view that all Muslims are obligated under Islam to support Erdoğan, is in fact a Turkish version of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who endorsed suicide bombings and armed rebellion in Syria.
Another ideologue is Nureddin Yıldız, a radical cleric who is close to the Turkish president. Yıldız openly advocates armed jihad, describes democracy as a system for infidels and says it can only be used as a means of deception to rise to power. Yıldız is the man who radicalized the young al Nusra-affiliated police officer who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey in December 2016.
He had close ties to the leader of Ahrar al-Sham, Hassan Abboud, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Abdullah al-Hamawi, who was killed in September 2014. Yıldız had pictures with Abboud during a visit to İdlib. On August 17, 2020, Nordic Monitor reported on his remarks about the conquest of Jerusalem and wiping out Jews. “When Turkish women abide by the Medina Charter instead of the Istanbul … and prefer the protection of God rather than human protection, the Jews will be disappeared and Jerusalem be ready for a new [Islamic] conquest,” he said.
In addition to its activities as reported by Indian intelligence, the Turkish Embassy has spied on representatives of the Indialogue Foundation, which brings together members of different religions and cultures and organizes the International Festival of Language and Culture (IFLC) in the country; on the directors of the Turkish Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry; and on teachers and prominent businessmen who have been living in the country for more than 20 years.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a separate investigation (file no. 2018/230240) into 12 Turkish nationals in India who were listed in espionage files dispatched by Turkish diplomats in New Delhi without any concrete evidence of wrongdoing. The investigation was based on spy files kept at the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi in 2016 and 2018.
Turkish fund for Tablighi Jamaat and Rohingyas in India
Turkish intelligence agency, under directives of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been vigorously continuing efforts of sending Turkish television serials dubbed in local languages of the respective countries with the goal of generation public opinion in favor of Ottoman Caliphate. Meanwhile such contents already are running in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and few other Muslim countries as well as Middle Eastern nations.
Meanwhile, Turkish intelligence, mostly through NGOs is also establishing connections with Tablighi Jamaat as well as Rohingyas in India with the agenda of further boosting jihadism and anti-Hindu sentiment within Muslims. Turkish intelligence is reportedly offering huge amount of money for running Islamization campaigns and projects inside India, while it also is secretly recruiting and training Indians for participating in Erdoğan’s ambition of expanding his influence and image throughout the world.
