Turkey has secretly helped Pakistan in setting up a cyber army to shape public opinion, influence the views of Muslims in Southeast Asia, attack the US and India and undermine criticism leveled against the Pakistani rulers, Nordic Monitor has learned.
The proposal to establish such a unit was first put on the table during private talks between visiting Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and his host, Shehryar Khan Afridi, the then-minister of state for interior, on December 17, 2018. The matter was discussed at the senior level and kept confidential from most of the staff at Islamabad’s interior ministry.
The plan was also green-lighted by Imran Khan, the then-prime minister who simultaneously held the position of interior minister, during a meeting with Soylu the same day.
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The first public admission of this clandestine operation was made by Soylu during an interview on October 13, 2022 with a local TV station in Kahramanmaraş. He did not name the country but made clear he was in fact talking about Pakistan when he referred to a country that was a five or six-hour direct flight from Turkey.
Read more: Nordic Monitor
