OPED: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Recent disclosures based on confidential documents indicate a concerning expansion of Turkey’s overseas intelligence activities, with India emerging as a focal point.
The documents indicate that Turkish operatives monitored a Noida-based civil society organization, highlighting what appears to be a broader pattern of foreign surveillance and influence operations.
At the center of the revelations is Indialogue Foundation, an organization established in 2005 to promote intercultural understanding, interfaith dialogue, and community engagement. According to the documents, the foundation’s activities—and individuals associated with it—were systematically tracked, with intelligence findings relayed back to Ankara. The organization has been linked to the transnational Hizmet movement inspired by the late Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, a long-time critic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following a political rupture between the two camps, Ankara has pursued an aggressive global campaign against individuals and institutions perceived to be affiliated with the movement. One document, dated late December 2025, appears to be a background intelligence assessment compiled by Turkish police after receiving classified inputs earlier that year. A subsequent communication indicates that this material was forwarded to a criminal court in Ankara in early 2026. The use of foreign-collected intelligence in domestic legal proceedings underscores how Turkey’s judicial mechanisms have increasingly intersected with intelligence operations. Although the documents do not explicitly identify the agency responsible for gathering the intelligence, the structure and language suggest involvement of a specialized unit operating under Turkey’s foreign ministry. This apparatus expanded significantly after Hakan Fidan—formerly head of the National Intelligence Organization—assumed his current role, reportedly integrating intelligence personnel into diplomatic missions abroad. India’s inclusion among priority countries for such activities reflects Ankara’s evolving geopolitical calculus.
Turkey has, in recent years, deepened its strategic alignment with Pakistan while simultaneously adopting positions critical of New Delhi on regional issues. Analysts suggest that intelligence-gathering efforts may be aimed not only at monitoring dissidents but also at building networks of influence and leverage. The documents also reveal that Turkish authorities flagged foreign nationals linked to a documentary shared by the Indialogue Foundation.
The film, titled “Love Is a Verb”, presents the Hizmet movement as a faith-inspired initiative promoting education and dialogue. However, under Turkey’s expansive counterterrorism framework, even such cultural or interfaith activities have been treated as suspect when associated with Gülen-linked entities.
This approach reflects a broader pattern within Turkey, where dissenting voices and civil society initiatives have increasingly been subjected to legal scrutiny. Critics argue that counterterrorism laws have been used to suppress opposition and criminalize peaceful engagement, including interfaith outreach.
Beyond surveillance, concerns extend to the wider ecosystem of Turkish-linked organizations operating internationally. Groups such as the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation and the paramilitary-linked SADAT have drawn scrutiny in various contexts, with allegations of involvement in ideological and logistical networks abroad. While these claims remain contested, their mention in multiple reports has fueled debate over Ankara’s use of non-state actors to advance strategic objectives.
Additionally, organizations like the Turkey Youth Foundation have reportedly focused on cultivating personnel for roles in diplomacy, intelligence, and international engagement. Such initiatives, which include overseas placements and cultural immersion, are seen by some analysts as part of a longer-term strategy to expand Turkey’s global influence footprint. For India, these developments present a complex challenge. Intelligence activities targeting organizations within its borders—particularly those engaged in dialogue and civil society work—raise questions about sovereignty, security, and the potential for covert influence operations. Security experts warn that such efforts may serve multiple purposes: monitoring political opponents, mapping diaspora networks, shaping narratives, and, in some cases, attempting to influence domestic dynamics. The convergence of intelligence gathering with ideological and geopolitical objectives makes the issue particularly sensitive. The broader implication is that intelligence competition is no longer confined to traditional state actors or military domains. Instead, it increasingly intersects with civil society, diaspora communities, and transnational networks—areas that are harder to regulate and more difficult to detect.
As India continues to expand its global engagement, the need to address such emerging challenges becomes more pressing. Strengthening counterintelligence capabilities, enhancing institutional coordination, and safeguarding civil society spaces will be key to ensuring resilience against external interference. The reported surveillance of a Noida-based organization may appear limited in scope. Yet, in the larger strategic context, it points to a widening arc of intelligence activity that extends well beyond Turkey’s immediate neighborhood—bringing it into direct interface with India’s domestic and geopolitical landscape.
