'Influence espionage'

When news reports surfaced that the government intends to include the crime of “influence agency,” described as a new type of espionage, in the 9th Judicial Package to be brought to Parliament before the end of the legislative year, I was reminded of former Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan.

I had heard about this from him for the first time.

It was the early 2000s. He was the Minister of Interior in the Ecevit Government.

Because of his background in the police force, he portrayed a very different image than his predecessors; he enjoyed speaking in codes and made full use of the media's interest in him.

He was the Minister of Interior, but he could never stop acting like a police chief.

The operations he launched against large-scale corruption and the statements he made would either break as “breaking news” on the news channels that were enjoying their golden age, or appear on the front pages of major newspapers the next day.

He was undoubtedly the most colorful member of the 57th Government.

I had the chance to follow his visit to Egypt in May 2000.

Unlike the large delegations of Foreign Ministers, he had only his bodyguard, Yusuf, and an official from the Ministry of Interior's Foreign Relations Department with him.

In other words, the Minister of Interior of the Republic of Turkey was making an official visit to Egypt with a three-person delegation, including himself.

As it happened, I was sitting in the seat right behind him on the plane to Cairo.

As soon as he boarded the plane, he took a book out of his bag and started reading. The title of the book was “Unholy War.”

The book explained how the CIA founded and supported al-Qaeda.

I started a conversation based on the book and asked a few questions in a row. Then the subject came to the issue of “influence espionage.”

He said that there were many “influence spies” working for Western countries in Turkey.

The spies Saadettin Tantan referred to were using their political and social positions to serve the interests of the countries that funded them.

Among them were prominent university professors, sharp-penned journalists, high-level bureaucrats, writers, and NGO managers.

He emphasized several times in a row that the most dangerous of these influence spies were not those in politics, but those in the media.

“They topple governments, form new governments, change Prime Ministers, and appoint ministers. Whichever country feeds them, they try to design politics according to the interests of that country,” he said.

It was clear that what he said had substance. But no matter what I said, I could not convince him to give names.

He did not speak during his contacts in Egypt either.

When I couldn't get anything out of him, I asked about his contacts in Cairo just so I could get a couple of lines of news.

Quite calmly, he said:

“I guess,” he said, “there is an organization called al-Qaeda, and their number two is in Istanbul. They said, 'If you catch him, give him to us.' We said, 'We will give him, of course, why not?'”

At that time, since the Twin Towers were still standing, I hadn't quite grasped the seriousness of the matter. And al-Qaeda—at least for me—was nothing more than a CIA-fed organization playing at radical Islamism in the shadows.

After returning to Turkey, it was talked about for a while longer. Even Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit made a statement saying, “No one gave me any names.” It was clear that Saadettin Tantan did not want to blow this out of proportion.

Turkey was going through troubled times. The millstone of the agenda was grinding developments very quickly; we didn't even remember the next day what we had talked about the day before.

I, too, put this matter in the dusty chest of my mind. Until December 2002.

About a month earlier, political Islamists had come to power. Turkey had stepped into a new era. What was remarkable was the support that Turkey's liberal, left-liberal, and conservative Kurdish voters, and covertly, Kurdish-nationalist politics, were giving to the political Islamists.

The cards were being reshuffled in politics. Only the AKP and CHP had entered Parliament, but there was serious activity in the parties left outside as well.

After founding the New Party, former Foreign Minister İsmail Cem, who had experienced great disappointment when Kemal Derviş left him high and dry, had come to visit Ekrem Pakdemirli, who wanted to be the ANAP Chairman.

As it happened, I was in the room where the meeting was held.

I knew İsmail Cem well because I had been following him as a reporter for years. He was extremely demoralized.

After a brief pleasantry, he got to the point.

“We,” he said, “did not take influence espionage very seriously. But we made a big mistake. They undermined us without us realizing it. It was already clear who they would bring to power. With what happened in Yugoslavia in plain sight, how did we fall into this mistake?”

Ekrem Pakdemirli did not find what İsmail Cem said strange at all. Moreover, he nodded in agreement with everything he said.

He hadn't stated it explicitly, but the target of his words was clear.

He thought Kemal Derviş was an “influence spy.”

But he had others in mind, too. After the meeting, before he got into his car, I went up to him and asked directly, “Who are they?”

“Whoever we trusted,” he muttered.

He was very sad, but I still pressed him. He got into his car without answering and left.

Four years later, he lost his life due to the cancer he could never overcome.

In other words, influence espionage is not a matter of today.

Let's be honest: influence spies serving the interests of Western countries made a huge contribution to the AKP coming to power in 2002. Because Western countries thought that political Islamists in Turkey would serve their own interests.

And that is exactly what happened.

For 22 years, the West—the US and the EU—has used the influence spies it has fed in Turkey—in the media, in academia, and in the bureaucracy—to the fullest extent to keep the AKP and Tayyip in power.

Now, the government is preparing to disguise this as a “crime” to silence the opposition even more. If this package passes, those who make opposition posts on social media will be accused of being “influence agents.”

And this mentality is now rolling up its sleeves to create a so-called democratic, liberal, and civil constitution in Turkey.

Let us ask what other rabbits Tayyip will pull out of his hat to stay in power for life, and put a period to our article.