Hakan Fidan (born 1968) is a retired Turkish army sergeant major, educator, diplomat and the Head of Turkey's

National Intelligence Organization The National Intelligence Organization ( tr, Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT) is the state intelligence agency of Turkey. Established in 1965 to replace National Security Service, its aim is to gather information about the current and po ...

Career

After a first degree in management and political sciences at

University of Maryland University College The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC, formerly University of Maryland University College) is a public university in Adelphi, Maryland. It is the largest of the University System of Maryland campuses. Established in 1947, UMGC focuses on ...

he got master's thesis and PhD thesis, both from

Bilkent University Bilkent University ( tr, Bilkent Üniversitesi) is a private university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by Prof. İhsan Doğramacı in 1984, with the aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research. It is constan ...

. He was a non-commissioned officer in the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

from 1986 to 2001. He was the head of the Turkish Development and Cooperation Agency''

Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...

'', 19 April 2010
Hakan Fidan becomes next head of Turkish intelligence
from 2003 to 2007. In November 2007 he was appointed as a deputy-undersecretary in the Prime Ministry and became the security advisor for

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer * Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and poli ...

National Intelligence Organization

From May 2010 to February 2015, he was the undersecretary (i.e. chief) of the National Intelligence Organization ( tr, Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT). On 7 February 2015, he resigned from his position to run for the

Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

from the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP). One month later, on 9 March 2015, he withdrew his candidacy and hours later was reappointed to his former job by the Government.

Foreign relations

His tenure saw a shift from a security cooperation with Israel and the United States towards one with Iran most notably

Qasem Soleimani Qasem Soleimani ( fa, قاسم سلیمانی, ; 11 March 19573January 2020) was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds F ...

, the leader of the Al Quds division. During the

Munich Security Conference The Munich Security Conference (MSC; german: Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz) is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Former names are ''Wehrkundetagung'' and ''Münchner ...

in February 2017, he delivered a list of 300 alleged supporters of the

Gülen Movement The Gülen movement ( tr, Gülen hareketi), referred to by its participants as Hizmet ("service") or Cemaat ("community") and since 2016 by the Government of Turkey as FETÖ ("Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation" or, more commonly, "Fethullah T ...

Bruno Kahl Bruno Guntram Wilhelm Kahl (born 12 July 1962 in Essen, West Germany) is a German civil servant and administrative lawyer. Since 1 July 2016, he has been President of the Federal Intelligence Service (''Bundesnachrichtendienst''). Early life and ...

, president of the German

Federal Intelligence Service The Federal Intelligence Service (German: ; , BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Chancellor's Office. The BND headquarters is located in central Berlin and is the world's largest intelligence head ...

in apparent expectation of cooperation. But the list much more lead the German authorities to warn the observed people from the Turkish intelligence service activities. In September 2022, he visited Hamis Hancer of the Sunni bloc in the

Iraqi Parliament The Council of Representatives ( ar, مجلس النواب, Majlis an-Nuwwāb al-ʿIrāqiyy; ku, ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌ران, ''Enjumen-e Nûnerên''), usually referred to simply as the Parliament is the unicameral legislature o ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and also met with the Iraqi President Baram Salih.

Controversies

He was involved in secret peace talks with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK) for which in 2012 a state prosecutor wanted to investigate him. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan intervened on behalf of Fidan and he was later delegated to hold talks with

Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish and Kurdish for "uncle"), is a political prisoner and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from ...

and arranged the secret black marketing of Iran through

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

's government. Hurriyet Daily News, 22 March 2013
Investigation of Turkish Intelligence head won’t proceed, says prosecutor
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fidan, Hakan 1968 births Living people People from Ankara People of the National Intelligence Organization (Turkey) Directors of intelligence agencies University of Maryland Global Campus alumni Bilkent University alumni Turkish non-commissioned personnel