Turkish diplomats continue to gather intelligence on critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Greece, Switzerland and Germany, according to secret documents obtained by Nordic Monitor.
The news leaking Nordic Monitor revealed exposed documents from 2020 communiqués exchanges between the Foreign Ministry of Turkey and the Directorate of General Security (Emniyet), the country's main law enforcement agency.
The main target of these spying activities were members of the Gülen movement, a group that was once allied with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan but became mortal enemies.
A three-page police document unveiled by the Sweden-based outlet detailed how intelligence was collected by Turkish agents in Europe, including Greece.
A national of Turkey mentioned in the documents is 31-year-old D.A. (name redacted) who was tracked to Greece.
As Nordic Monitor highlights, the Turkish intelligence service MIT and the Turkish Embassy have "the most comprehensive espionage operations" and have assistance from Greece's Turkish-speaking Muslim minority.
Erdoğan Kartal, deputy head of the counterterrorism department in the Emniyet, warned that the information must be treated “on a need-to-know basis and not to be shared with unauthorized people/institutions.”
According to Nordic Monitor, "It is clear that Turkish authorities were concerned about a diplomatic backlash in the event such activities were exposed and the documents leaked to the media."
READ MORE: One of the Greek Muslims spying from Rhodes Turkish Consulate supports Thrace’s independence from Greece.
