The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) today released its latest report, “Weaponized Diplomacy: How Erdoğan Uses Turkish Missions for Transnational Repression,” which reveals how the Turkish government has transformed its embassies and consulates into instruments of repression over the past decade. Once seen as safe harbors and “homes away from home,” these institutions now serve as operational outposts for extending repression beyond Turkey’s borders, denying perceived opponents even the most basic consular services and pursuing them worldwide.
Drawing on insider accounts and official documents, the report shows that following a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, Turkish embassies and consulates were increasingly repurposed to operate as extensions of the state security machinery. Diplomatic posts became involved in surveillance, harassment and the facilitation of extralegal renditions while also supporting media manipulation campaigns targeting critics abroad.
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long arm has followed critics into exile,” said Abdullah Bozkurt, the president of SCF. “Through embassies and consulates, the Turkish state intimidates and punishes people far beyond its borders. This report offers the first in-depth account of how diplomatic missions have been turned into tools of repression.”
In this sustained campaign of transnational repression, Turkish missions have employed every means at their disposal, with no regard for diplomatic norms or local and international law to target perceived opponents of the government, particularly members of the faith-based Gülen movement. This includes mobilizing the Directorate of Religious Affairs’ (Diyanet) global network and pro-government diaspora organizations such as the Union of International Democrats (UID) in Europe and the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC) in the United States.
According to the report there has been documented Turkish state activity in at least 115 countries worldwide. From Burkina Faso to Norway and from Myanmar to New Zealand, the cases span every major region, underscoring the truly global reach of a strategy in which embassies and consulates play a central role.
The case of Turkey illustrates how easily the privileges of diplomacy can be subverted when authoritarian governments are left unchecked. The misuse of diplomatic cover for repression violates the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, infringes on host state sovereignty and undermines the fundamental norms on which international diplomacy depends.
To address this challenge, the report provides policy recommendations to various stakeholders, including stricter vetting of diplomatic visa applications to prevent accreditation of individuals with a record of harassment or intimidation, as well as the use of targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans, against individual officials responsible for systematic transnational repression.
About the Stockholm Center for Freedom
SCF is a non-profit advocacy organization that promotes the rule of law, democracy and human rights with a special focus on Turkey.
Committed to serving as a reference source by providing a broad perspective on rights violations in Turkey, SCF monitors daily developments, documents individual cases of the infringement of fundamental rights and publishes comprehensive reports on human rights issues.
