The Turkish Embassy in Athens, a nest of spies

New revelations about Turkey's massive worldwide spying campaign. The Swedish newspaper Nordic Monitor has had access to documents that show that Greece was one of the main victims of the initiative, promoted by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and articulated by the country's intelligence services (MIT, for its acronym in Turkish).

Investigative journalist Abdullah Bozkurt has been able to document that Turkish nationals who had escaped to Greece by land or sea were targeted by Turkish agents. Recent reports, dated early February, indicate that those under close surveillance were critical of Erdogan's policies. Many of them were also followers of the cleric Fetullah Gülen, who lives in the United States and is one of the most recognisable faces of the opposition to the president.

In particular, the document held by the Nordic Monitor acknowledges that on February 7 a 39-page dossier was distributed containing details about the lives of nearly 300 people who had previously been politically persecuted in Turkey itself, with more than dubious charges of terrorism behind them, and who had managed to reach the neighbouring country. The signatory was not just any intelligence agent: he was Erdogan Kartal, deputy director of the Counter-Terrorism Department at the Emniyet (the powerful General Directorate of Security).

In the dossier, distributed through many Turkish provinces with great security measures, it was stated that the data had been compiled and provided by MIT, marked in code with an "IV" in Roman numerals. In addition, the forces of law and order were urged to remain vigilant in the face of the possibility of further departures from the country.

The identification of MIT through this code would allow the Turkish authorities, eventually, to circumvent the Code of Criminal Procedure in force in the country, since it strictly prohibits the presentation in a trial of intelligence obtained by illegal or intrusive means, as happened in the case of Greece. Thus, internal documents were drafted in such a way as to conceal the identity of the sources and then use the data in a trial against the person being spied on. Moreover, intelligence reports were transmitted only through very secure channels and to the relevant persons in order to minimize the risk of leakage.

Nordic Monitor has also been able to access documents produced in October 2019 from an institution designated with a "V", the Roman number corresponding to 5. This reference replaced the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, headed by Mevlut Çavusoglu. In these writings, it is detailed that 69 other Turkish citizens and their families residing in Greece were under surveillance by none other than the Embassy of their own country of birth. The information was shared with the Turkish section of Europol and Interpol.

Most likely, the Interior Attaché of the diplomatic institution had received instructions from the Erdogan government to coordinate the espionage work from there, which would be carried out not only by professional intelligence agents dependent on MIT, but also by members of the diplomatic staff themselves. This mechanism, which violates the principles laid down in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Law, has already served Turkish interests in other countries, such as Georgia.

The Swedish newspaper's investigation suggests that this way of acting is being dangerously standardised in diplomatic institutions under the command of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While intelligence agents assigned to embassies often perform functions as mere liaisons, in Turkey it seems that overreach is gradually becoming the rule rather than the exception.

In any case, the use of official representations in other countries for their own purposes is another symptom of the authoritarian and personalistic drift that has characterized Erdogan's administration for years; more specifically, since the failed coup d'état perpetrated by the Army in the summer of 2016.

Surveillance of critics of the regime - and in particular those affiliated with Fetullah Gülen's movement - is common practice in at least twenty countries, according to previous research by the Nordic Monitor itself. The case of Greece is particularly sensitive. Ankara and Athens have a very important historical rivalry, as they have been in constant tension over the dominance of the eastern Mediterranean.

These frictions have intensified in recent months due to Erdogan's expansionist foreign policy, which, unilaterally and in disregard of existing legal provisions on the international law of the sea, has sought to retain for itself the rights to exploit the gas exchanges located in the area. With Cyprus as the main victim, Greece has shown itself to be willing to support the island country. Other powers, such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France, have also officially censured Turkey's actions. 

In addition, the recent opening of the borders by Ankara to allow refugees to enter the EU has put Greece in a very difficult situation. This course of action may therefore further aggravate relations between two NATO partners that are practically broken.