Necdet Seyidoğlu, a UK citizen who was kidnapped on Friday by individuals allegedly connected to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), has recounted his terrifying experience in a video message.
Seyidoğlu said he and a friend were kidnapped by four masked men who blocked their path with a car around 7:30 a.m. while on their way to work. The kidnappers pointed their guns at them and forced them into the vehicle.
He was among seven people who were kidnapped by unknown assailants in the Kenyan capital. While three of the victims, including the wife of one of the abductees and a minor, were later released, four others remain missing.
“They immediately put sacks over our heads,” he said. “They drove around the city for about four hours without getting out of the car.”
Seyidoğlu asked the kidnappers who they were and requested to see their IDs, but received no response. The kidnappers also refused to tell them their destination.
After an additional two hours, the kidnappers separated their victims and put them in different cars. “I traveled with them for about three more hours,” he said. “My eyes were still covered and they refused to answer any of my questions.”
Eventually, the kidnappers told Seyidoğlu they would release him. They confiscated his laptop and left him in a remote part of Nairobi.
The incident has raised concerns that the kidnappers were operating under the direction of Turkish intelligence agency MİT, which is known to employ extralegal methods, including renditions, to secure the return of Gülen movement supporters abroad.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the coup attempt MİT has conducted operations for the forcible return of more than 100 people with alleged links to the Gülen movement. The latest cases include Koray Vural, a Turkish businessman who went missing in Tajikistan in September 2023 and was found to be in police custody in Turkey the next month. Emsal Koç, who also went missing Tajikistan in June 2023, was found to be in police custody in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum when the police contacted his family living in the province.
According to a 2023 report by Freedom House on transnational repression, Turkey has become the world’s second most prolific perpetrator of transnational repression. A wide range of tactics used by the Turkish government against its critics abroad include spying through diplomatic missions and pro-government diaspora organizations, denial of consular services and outright intimidation and illegal renditions.
