Nordic Monitor Reports Turkey Foreign Ministry Transformed Into Intelligence Operations Platform Under Former MIT Chief Fidan

Turkey's Foreign Ministry published its 2026 Performance Program, an official planning document that Nordic Monitor reports shows sharply different institutional language from the ministry's 2025 program, replacing an emphasis on ceasefire diplomacy, mediation and EU accession with framing centered on geopolitical competition, "state survival," and military and intelligence capability 12. The report assigns performance indicators to the ministry's Intelligence and Security Affairs Directorate General (İGGM), including a metric tracking international coordination mechanisms against "terrorist financing" and a separate metric counting academic and media coverage of groups Turkey designates as terrorist organizations 12. The ministry's overseas mission count rose from 261 to 263 over the past year, adding one embassy and one permanent mission, giving Turkey what Nordic Monitor describes as the world's third-largest diplomatic network 12. The ministry is also building a new 548,000-square-meter headquarters in Ankara, initially estimated at roughly 15 billion lira and sited adjacent to the National Intelligence Organization's (MIT) complex 12. The document was signed by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who served more than 13 years as director of MIT before taking the foreign minister post in June 2023 12.