Erdogan is trying to bring Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov closer to him

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s August 5 meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin appears to have turned the page on Ankara’s frosty ties with Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Muslim-majority Chechen Republic and a Putin loyalist. Turkey’s foreign minister and intelligence chief, who accompanied Erdogan to Sochi, met with Kadyrov on the sidelines of the summit, and it was the Chechen leader who publicized the meeting on Telegram.

Kadyrov has long been linked to espionage cases and a series of murders of Chechen dissidents in Turkey. That senior Turkish officials were willing to meet him shortly after he publicly reprimanded Erdogan portends a policy shift on Ankara’s part – a diplomatic feat that could be credited not to Kadyrov, but rather to his boss. Putin has so far avoided taking the Chechen leader into his meetings with Erdogan, although he often has him in his entourage when he meets other Muslim leaders.

Kadyrov has demonstrated his loyalty to Putin by contributing special forces to Russia’s military operations in Syria and Ukraine. Its soldiers were deployed as military police in Syria, mainly in Aleppo, showing the locals a “Muslim face” of the Russian mission. Their deployment was intended to correct the dire image left by fighters from Russia’s Caucasus regions who joined Islamic State or allied with the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria’s civil war. Kadyrov also undertook the restoration of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo and another historic mosque in Homs. However, the fighters he sent to the war in Ukraine have created a contrasting image to that of the reconstruction aid in Syria. In both Ukraine and Syria, Kadyrov’s missions clashed with Erdogan’s policies.

Details of the meeting in Sochi are limited to what Kadyrov shared on Telegram the next day. “We had a rich and productive informal discussion, in which we agreed on the need to establish close cooperation between Turkey and the Chechen Republic on various issues,” he wrote. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed hope that this informal meeting will be the beginning of further development of relations and establishment of contacts. I agreed with him and noted that both sides will benefit from joint initiatives. He added that he received an invitation to visit Turkey and immediately accepted.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency has gained operational capabilities in conflict zones beyond Turkey’s borders in recent years, and the fact that chief Hakan Fidan attended the meeting has raised doubts about the nature of Ankara’s possible cooperation with Kadyrov. between Turkey’s opposition and Chechen exiles in the country, many of whom are former independence fighters.

The speculation may be far-fetched, but some Kurds wonder if the Chechens could be used in Turkish military campaigns against Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria. And many in Turkey’s opposition ranks are already worried by claims that bloody unrest, including assassinations, will emerge in pre-election Turkey, stoking even more suspicion and fear.

Chechen exiles, meanwhile, fear that Ankara’s rapprochement with Kadyrov could come at the expense of the relative safe haven they have found in Turkey despite nine assassinations in the past decade. However, Ankara’s dialogue with Kadyrov may depend on ending Turkey’s pursuit and targeting of Chechen dissidents. In return, refugee and diaspora activities against Kadyrov’s administration may be suppressed.

Until last year, Turkey continued to be the setting for settling scores between Kadyrov’s men and Chechen dissidents. Six people arrested on suspicion of espionage in Istanbul and Antalya in October are said to be linked to Kadyrov’s legions. Turkish media reported the incident as the collapse of a Russian spy network. The suspects – four nationals of the Russian Federation, one Ukrainian and one Uzbek – were allegedly planning to attack Chechen dissidents. One of them reportedly confessed to taking orders from Kadyrov’s cousin Adam Delimkhanov and a certain Kazbek Dukuzov. Police seized an unlicensed gun equipped with a silencer at the residence of one of the suspects. In March 2021, two Chechens believed to be linked to Kadyrov were arrested in Antalya as part of an investigation into unknown persons stalking Chechen exiles.

According to a Chechen exile who spoke to Al-Monitor in December, the espionage activities targeted individuals involved in diaspora online networks such as “1ADAT” and “Security Turkey” that uncovered crimes allegedly committed by Kadyrov and his men in Chechnya, including kidnapping, torturing, killing and extorting former independence fighters and their relatives. The Chechen exiles believed that Turkey’s intelligence services and police had made the decision to take Kadyrov’s clandestine activities in Turkey more seriously.

The tensions brewing behind the scenes came to light in December when Kadyrov threatened to name a park in Grozny after Turkey’s public enemy number one – the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish militia, Abdullah Ocalan – in response to Turkish city that named a park after Dzhokhar Dubayev, the Chechen pro-independence leader who fought Russian troops in the 1990s. Addressing Erdogan, Kadyrov said: “Decide! Either you become a state that openly supports terrorists or you support honest relations with Russia. We have the right to respond.” The Kremlin supported Kadyrov’s reaction.

Although Kadyrov was an unwelcome figure in Turkey, his alleged crimes have been largely dismissed, largely due to Russian influence. Turkish authorities have often been criticized for ignoring the actions of Russian intelligence and Kadyrov’s men and for hastily extraditing suspects to Russia instead of expanding investigations. However, Kadyrov has long hoped to be appreciated by Turkey, as well as other Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain.

Petros Kranias