Qafqazinfo: Azerbaijan should review activities of Turkey-linked organizations
Azerbaijan should review the work of organizations linked to Turkey, including the Youth Aid Foundation (GYF), Qafqazinfo said after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a meeting at the foundation during a visit to Baku.
There are reports that Fidan gave certain instructions at the meeting, the outlet said. Holding such a meeting and instructing young people at a time when information attacks are being made on Azerbaijan from Turkey raises suspicions, according to Qafqazinfo.
The foundation operates as a charity, but it is tied to Turkish intelligence and its purpose is to build "soft power," cultivate "agents of influence" and collect information, the outlet said. Set up in 1994, it serves the spread of the Nurcu-Islamist ideology of the AKP, like other Turkish non-governmental organizations working abroad, according to Qafqazinfo.
A letter Fidan sent to the speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on July 17, 2025, and later leaked to the media, says Turkish non-governmental organizations running humanitarian aid campaigns abroad are closely monitored by the state and their work is coordinated. Turkish embassies and consulates are instructed to work in coordination with these organizations, according to the letter.
The Turkish foreign ministry holds regular meetings with them, steers their work abroad and tells them which issues to give priority to, Qafqazinfo said. In the letter Fidan writes that his ministry holds meetings with such organizations with the participation of other state bodies and exchanges various information with them on issues to be taken into account in the countries where they operate.
One of the bodies taking part in those meetings is Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the outlet said. MIT places its staff in organizations working under the name of charity in various countries and uses humanitarian activity to create sources of information, recruit local citizens and gather intelligence, according to Qafqazinfo.
The letter also says the ministry prepares instructions on how organizations abroad should operate through its own intelligence unit, the General Directorate of Intelligence and Security Affairs.
MIT uses the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), which works in 123 countries, and similar humanitarian organizations for intelligence operations, the outlet said. IHH's main mission in Syria and Libya is the organization of Islamist forces under the name of humanitarian aid, and it carries out similar missions in Afghanistan, Somalia, Palestine, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Niger and Bangladesh, according to Qafqazinfo.
Another organization named by the outlet is the Aziz Mahmud Hudayi Foundation, which operates mainly in Africa and Asia under the name of charity, education and humanitarian work. One of its main missions is to raise a generation in Africa tied to political Islamist ideology, Qafqazinfo said.
Such interventions often end in chaos, and there are reports of Turkey's involvement in coups in a number of countries of the Middle East and Africa, the outlet said. In the civil war in Sudan, Turkey's support for that country's armed forces plays a serious role, while IHH carries out organizational work and spreads political Islamist ideology there under the name of humanitarian aid, according to Qafqazinfo.
Azerbaijan has also faced attempts by Turkey-linked organizations to stage a coup and create chaos, the outlet said. Ferman Demirkol, who took part in the 1995 coup plan in Azerbaijan, was an employee of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).
