Diaspora agency runs covert recruitment programs seeks young spies in US, Canada

Secret documents revealed the suspicious role of the Diaspora Agency in recruiting young people for the benefit of Turkish intelligence in both the United States of America and Canada.

The Diaspora Advocacy Academy claims that it aims “to increase the awareness of successful Turkish youth about the US and Canadian democracies so that they become more cognisant of their rights and learn how to convey their concerns, aspirations, and expectations to their local, regional, and national leaders.”

Nordic Monitor previously reported that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) recruited spies from diaspora communities in Europe, using nongovernmental organizations to reach out to candidates.

According to a well-placed government insider, MIT planted operatives in several key government agencies that deal with Turks and non-Turkish Muslim communities abroad to run the vetting and recruitment program.

A whistleblower also told Nordic Monitor that the regulations were designed to bypass the standard recruitment process for employment in government jobs for such candidates.

The YTB’s training program will include a number of seminars on the political institutions of the US and Canada, their foreign and domestic policy formation processes and matters concerning the Turkish-American and Turkish-Canadian communities.

The participants are also expected to visit the White House, the US Congress, the World Bank, the IMF and the US Department of State according to the official announcement on the presidency’s website.

Nordic Monitor has learned that 30 people will be admitted to the program, which was widely announced by pro-Turkish government media outlets in the US.

The training program will be held at the Diyanet Center of America, which was launched in 2016 by the Turkish government at a cost of $110 million. The center is run by Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) and has hosted many US Muslim figures including controversial members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The YTB is run by 38-year-old Abdullah Eren, who used to be the deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) İstanbul youth branch. Eren was appointed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as part of his plans to turn the agency into a branch of his party.

In 2019 Nordic Monitor published official documents showing that the YTB had engaged in clandestine operations. According to auditing reports dated September 2018 the agency was found to be in violation of several Turkish laws when auditors determined non-compliance with the rules in the use of a special budget item in the amount of TL 9.6 million spent by the YTB in 2017.

Defending the violation, the YTB claimed the operations financed by the special budget item were deemed sensitive and urgent and that the relevant documents were kept in a secure room, preventing the auditors from verifying compliance.

Abdullah Eren had also worked at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), a government propaganda think tank charged with the task of whitewashing what Erdoğan does. SETA is known to function as an entry point for government jobs.