Hakan Fidan: The Keeper of Secrets in Turkey’s New Government

From Cankaya Palace in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced, on Saturday, the formation of his new government, which includes 17 ministers, making major changes, especially in the ministries of defense and foreign affairs.

The 69-year-old president, who returned to power after being re-elected with 52% of the vote on May 28 in an unprecedented second round of elections in Turkey, chose Cevdet Yilmaz as his deputy.

The president’s “trusted man” had the most prominent position in the new formation, after Erdogan, who was sworn in for a third five-year term, decided to choose him for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to succeed Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Here we mean Erdogan’s confidant, Hakan Fidan, who held many government positions in the fields of foreign policy and security.

The new Turkish foreign minister.. who is he?

Hakan Fidan, Turkish politician and member of the Justice and Development Party, born in Bilkent, Ankara in 1968, married and father of three children.

He studied and graduated from the Combat Infantry Forces School in 1986, and then studied at the Language School of the Infantry Forces.

Between 1986 and 2001, Fidan joined the Rapid Intervention Unit of NATO and the ranks of the Rapid Intelligence Branch in Germany.

He carried out missions of an intelligence nature before his resignation from the armed forces in 2001.

Fidan held the position of economic and political advisor at the Turkish Embassy in Australia, and held the position of advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the period under Ahmet Davutoglu.

In 2003, he was appointed to the position of head of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency “TIKA”, and he continued at the helm until 2007. According to the Turkish newspaper “Ahwal”, during this stage, Fidan acquired a special status with Erdogan.

Keeper of my secrets and keeper of state secrets

In 2010, Erdogan appointed then-Prime Minister Fidan to the post of intelligence chief.

During this period, he assumed the secret peace talks in Oslo with the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah Ocalan, a position he has been occupying since this date.

Fidan is considered a staunch supporter of Erdogan and was previously his diplomatic advisor for three years.

He succeeded in continuing the talks until they were exposed by Turkish newspapers in 2011, which led to their collapse.

The spotlight came during this stage on the powerful head of the intelligence service, after prosecutors suspected in 2012 that Fidan had overstepped his authority in talks with Kurdish rebels and summoned him to explain what had happened.

At the time, he was accused of high treason, before the Turkish president came out in 2012, to praise and support him, saying, “He is the keeper of my secrets, the keeper of the secrets of the Turkish Republic, and the keeper of the secrets of Turkey’s future.”

Erdogan emphasized at the time that Fidan “gained the Turkish state a lot, and he was good when he was an advisor, and when he was president of TIKA, and everyone who has a right must be given his right, and he deserves this praise.”

A Western diplomatic source said that Fidan has been Erdogan’s “trusted man for years”, and he is also the person leading negotiations with the Arab world, Egypt, the UAE, Libya, as well as Syria, with which the Turkish president is trying to re-establish contact through Moscow.

In 2013, an American journalist accused Fidan of selling the identities of Israeli spies operating in Iran, but the Turkish authorities denied this and renewed their confidence in him.

One year later, in 2014, a number of intelligence service members were arrested on the Syrian border with a truck of weapons intended for extremist Syrian opposition. This sparked a sensation at the time in the Turkish street and was considered a scandal that was soon forgotten when the agency was able in September to release 46 Turks who were held hostage by the Islamic State in Iraq.

The new Turkish government is scheduled to meet for the first time on Tuesday, the Turkish president said.

During this occasion, Erdogan did not forget his opponents, and called on them to “find a way to establish peace.”

“Let’s put aside the resentment and anger resulting from this electoral period,” he told the audience of heads of state and government, welcoming each of them by name.

“We expect the opposition to act responsibly for Turkey’s well-being and democracy,” he added, calling on “parties (…), journalists, writers, civil society and artists to reconcile with the national will.”