Hakan Fidan

Overview

Hakan Fidan is a Turkish official who served as intelligence director before becoming foreign minister following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s election victory in 2023. A close Erdoğan ally, Fidan carried experience in intelligence operations and private diplomacy into the foreign ministry. His work has joined security policy to relations with neighboring governments, particularly in Iraq and Syria. He has also led reconciliation efforts with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while taking a confrontational diplomatic position toward Israel.^[1][2]

Career

Before leading Turkey’s intelligence service, Fidan headed TIKA, the government’s aid agency. As intelligence director, he oversaw sensitive backchannels with regional and international actors and played a leading role in shaping Turkish intelligence and security policy. Those channels gave him a means to manage relationships that formal diplomacy alone could not readily address. His reconciliation work with Egypt and Saudi Arabia reflected that combination of private contact and state policy. His appointment as foreign minister in 2023 placed those relationships within a broader portfolio directed by Erdoğan.^[1][5][10]

Iraq became a central part of that portfolio. Fidan developed close ties with Sunni and Kurdish political leaders and worked to connect Iraqi actors during formation of Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s government. On a secret trip to Iraq in September 2022, he met Falih al-Fayyadh, chairman of the Popular Mobilization Forces. His Iraqi contacts spanned political groups whose interests often diverged. Turkish policy there also involved trade, energy, environmental concerns and military operations, requiring Fidan to work across economic and security questions at once.^[1]

His dealings with Kurdish parties showed both the reach and limits of those contacts. Fidan reportedly hosted a delegation from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 2021, although Turkey’s relationship with that party remained strained over its links with the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Turkey sought wider Iraqi cooperation against the PKK while pursuing transport and energy interests. Fidan’s contacts in Baghdad and among Kurdish leaders gave him channels for both aims.^[1][7][15]

Ideology and statements

Fidan’s public positions have emphasized Turkish security interests and regional influence. On Iran, he opposed destabilization amid unrest and the rial’s collapse. He warned that external actors could exploit those conditions and that an Israeli attack on Iran would spread chaos across the region. Turkish concerns included the possibility that disorder would benefit the PKK and PJAK and damage Turkey’s energy market. His position therefore treated Iranian stability as a Turkish national security interest, despite competition between Ankara and Tehran.^[3]

Fidan used hostile rhetoric toward Israel during the Gaza war. On August 7, 2024, he announced Turkey’s intervention in South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide. Turkey’s submission advanced that accusation; it did not establish genocide as fact. Later that month, Fidan called Israel “a problem for the entire world” and “a burden humanity can no longer bear.” He said Ankara had halted $10 billion in trade with Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned the burden remark as “clear incitement to genocide.”^[4][9]

Role in attacks or conflicts

Fidan helped direct Turkish operations against leaders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and allied factions in northern Iraq. Targets included areas around Sinjar, Makhmur and al-Kuwayr. His intelligence leadership was part of a wider Turkish campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria. Turkish efforts also combined military pressure with contacts among Kurdish political actors, an approach that continued to shape policy after he became foreign minister.^[1][8][14]

Fidan also pressed Turkey’s interests in negotiations over the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). At a December 22 joint press conference in Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani confirmed that Syria’s defense ministry had presented the SDF with an integration proposal and that Damascus was reviewing its response. The Syrian Democratic Council criticized Fidan’s visit as bringing outside actors into Syria’s internal affairs. On January 15, Fidan said Turkey preferred a peaceful settlement but regarded force by Syria’s government as an option. His statements placed Turkish security demands alongside Damascus’s effort to bring SDF forces into state institutions.^[2][13]

Relations with Israel formed another part of his security record. After the May 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, Fidan sought to cancel agreements that had allowed Mossad agents to operate in Turkey. After Hamas, a terrorist organization, attacked Israel in October 2023, Fidan met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken urged Turkey to advocate a ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas. In October 2025, Fidan met representatives of organizations that had delivered aid to Gaza; IHH chief Bülent Yıldırım attended.^[4][5][6]

Death or current status

Fidan remained Turkey’s foreign minister in 2026. His work continued to involve the linked questions of Turkish security, relations with neighboring states and the war in Gaza. The move from intelligence director to foreign minister left him in a public role while retaining the regional contacts built during his intelligence career.^[1][2][3]

Legacy

Fidan’s career illustrates the growing place of intelligence and security officials in Turkey’s foreign policy under Erdoğan. His private channels helped advance reconciliation with Egypt and Saudi Arabia and provided contacts across Iraq’s political landscape. His record also includes operations against the PKK, pressure over the SDF’s future in Syria, opposition to destabilizing Iran and a sharp deterioration in Turkey’s relations with Israel. The 2024 International Court of Justice intervention and his remarks about Israel made that deterioration a prominent part of his tenure as foreign minister.^{[1][2][3][4][9]}