Why was Turkey's intel chief in Washington?
Turkish intel chief Hakan Fidan's visit to the United States generated an uproar from the Turkish opposition. Why did Erdogan encourage this public bashing of Fidan?
Turkish news outlets reported on Dec. 6 that Hakan Fidan, the director of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), was in Washington DC to brief Congress on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Although initial media reports used prudent language, emphasizing “closed door” meetings, Fidan’s Washington engagements became an urgent matter of interest in Turkey’s fast-paced news cycle.
Indeed, government sources in Ankara classified this as a routine trip for the intelligence community. After traveling with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the G-20 summit in Argentina, Fidan first landed in Canada. Then he arrived in Washington — a routine visit, according to sources in Ankara and Washington — and met with senators of the NATO Observer Group. Sources in the United States confirmed official Turkish statements that the Khashoggi case was only one among several other intelligence and security issues discussed.
Before his departure, Fidan and his team visited CIA headquarters on Dec. 7. Again, this was reported as a routine visit. Yet Ankara and Washington sources both denied that Fidan briefed the US Congress. Meanwhile, in Turkey, the latest Fidan crisis was unfolding.
On Dec. 7, when asked by the media about allegations that Fidan had briefed the US Congress, Erdogan simply brushed it off. “I do not have knowledge of this," he said. "After [Fidan’s] Canada trip, something like this might have happened.” This statement — that Fidan might have possibly acted without the knowledge of the president — was sufficient to generate a crisis in Ankara.
