The Turkish Secret Service, the MIT (the Turkish acronym for Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı) made an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap a Turkish citizen in Mongolia.

Considered by the MIT as connected to the preacher Fethullah Gülen, Professor Veysel Akçay had been kidnapped at the entrance of the school where he was working, by 5 members of the Turkish secret service. He was then transported to the airport of Oulan Bator where a CL604 Challenger (a plane of the Turkish Army) was waiting for him.

Put on notice by colleagues of the professor, the Mongolian police gave the order for the plane not to be allowed to take off for so long as Veysel Akçay was on board. He was finally set free after eight hours of negotiations.

During the incident, the Turkish authorities including the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, denied the action of their secret services.

Last April, Turkish Vice Prime Minister, Bekir Bozdağ, declared that 80 Turkish nationals had been « bundled away» by the MIT in 18 different countries [1].

It is now emerging that such kidnappings in Ukraine and Gabon were carried out with the complicity of local authorities.

Another operation of this type has produced a scandal in Kosovo [2].

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[1] “According to Ankara: 80 Turkish nationals were not kidnapped but “bundled up””, Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 7 April 2018.

[2] “Erdoğan forces the Prime Minister of Kosovo to retain his Head of Secret Services”, Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 7 April 2018.