Turkey Secretly Plots to Bypass INTERPOL Rules to Target Exiled Journalist in Sweden

A classified memo issued by Turkey’s Security General Directorate (Emniyet) reveals covert efforts to circumvent INTERPOL rules in order to secure an international arrest warrant, also known as a Red Notice, against a Turkish journalist living in exile who has been granted asylum in Sweden.

The confidential memo, obtained by Nordic Monitor, is signed by İskender Güray Keskin, deputy head of the Interpol-Europol Department within the Emniyet. Dated June 18 the memo was circulated among key Turkish government institutions, including the intelligence agency, the Ministry of Justice and the chief public prosecutor’s offices in three provinces.

The target identified in the memo is Levent Kenez, a journalist based in Stockholm and editor of Nordic Monitor, who had to flee Turkey in 2016 after an arrest warrant was issued for him on fabricated charges. Kenez, the former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Meydan newspaper, has continued his journalistic work in exile, despite facing persistent threats from Turkish authorities, including illegal surveillance of his home in Sweden.

The memo acknowledges that INTERPOL has repeatedly rejected Turkey’s requests to issue Red Notices for critics associated with the Gülen movement on the grounds that they are politically motivated and violate the organization’s constitution, which prohibits interference in matters of a political, military, religious or racial character.

The movement opposes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and has criticized his administration’s policies on a range of issues, including human rights abuses, systemic corruption and Turkey’s support for radical jihadist groups.

Since a coup attempt in 2016, which is considered to be false flag event staged by the Erdogan government, Ankara has labeled the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization. However, the movement, which emerged in the 1960s as a community-oriented initiative inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, has never engaged in violence.

No democratic country recognizes the movement as a terrorist organization. Both the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and United Nations human rights bodies have issued multiple rulings against Turkey, citing serious violations of legal rights and due process for individuals accused of affiliation with the movement. Although Turkey is obligated to comply with these decisions under its contractual commitments to international human rights conventions, the Erdogan government has so far refused to adopt corrective measures to remedy the injustices faced by members of the Gülen movement.

In fact the crackdown on the movement has been relentless, with hundreds of alleged Gülenists rounded up by Turkish police almost every week. The Erdogan government has continued to abuse the criminal justice system to maintain a climate of fear among opposition groups both in Turkey and abroad.

The memo outlines a strategy to circumvent INTERPOL’s political screening mechanisms. It advises Turkish authorities to avoid referencing any Gülen-related charges in their extradition or Red Notice requests. Instead, they should emphasize other accusations that appear more credible. In Kenez’s case, the memo cites an alleged offense of unlawfully obtaining or disseminating personal data, based on an article he published.

A screenshot included in the memo lists 11 arrest warrants issued for Kenez. One of them is an active warrant from Ankara’s 73rd Criminal Court of First Instance (Decision No. 2023/767), citing two charges: “unlawfully acquiring or disseminating personal data” and “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” referring to the Gülen movement under the acronym FETÖ/PDY.

Keskin, the senior police official, explicitly recommends that Turkish authorities exclude references to terrorism or Gülen-related allegations when submitting the request to INTERPOL. This, he argues, would reduce the risk of rejection by INTERPOL’s screening mechanisms. He further suggests that this tactic can be applied to other similar cases involving critics of the Erdogan government.

Although the memo does not quantify how many such cases could be manipulated in this way, Turkish officials have admitted to prosecuting approximately 750,000 people over alleged links to the Gülen movement since 2014. This indicates that a significant number of politically motivated cases may be repackaged to appear legitimate under international legal frameworks.

Following the 2016 false flag coup attempt, Turkey flooded INTERPOL’s database with politically charged Red Notice requests. As a result, the INTERPOL Secretariat temporarily restricted Turkey’s access to its systems out of concern that the integrity of the organization was being compromised.

The memo also recommends that Turkish authorities pursue alternatives to INTERPOL mechanisms, such as using bilateral or regional extradition treaties, to target exiled dissidents.

Kenez was previously the subject of such an attempt. In December 2021 Turkey filed an extradition request with Sweden under the European Convention on Extradition. The Swedish Supreme Court rejected the request, finding that the charges against Kenez did not meet the threshold for criminality under Swedish law and that his extradition would expose him to a substantial risk of political persecution.

The court concluded that Kenez’s work as a journalist, including his role as editor-in-chief of a newspaper, could not be considered a crime under Swedish law, even if the publication were affiliated with the Gülen movement. The court also emphasized that extradition is prohibited when it concerns an individual’s political beliefs, religious affiliation or social group membership, and it highlighted the substantial risk of persecution in Turkey as a barrier to extradition.

Despite consistent failures in democratic countries with independent judiciaries, the Erdogan government continues to pursue critics abroad. In July 2024 Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç revealed that the government had submitted 1,774 extradition requests to 119 countries, targeting individuals linked to the Gülen movement. The vast majority of these requests have been denied.

The leaked memo illustrates how Turkish authorities are actively seeking to harass journalists living in exile, human rights activists and political dissidents. The Erdogan regime continues to fabricate legal charges, distort judicial documents and exploit international institutions in an effort to silence critics and expand its influence across borders.