TM Editorial
From the Netherlands, where he now resides after being released from custody in March, the former finance chief of slain Turkish Cypriot casino boss Halil Falyalı has made detailed claims implicating Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan in an alleged attempt to recover sensitive video recordings said to involve senior government figures.
In a series of interviews with Turkish Cypriot journalist Ayşemden Akın of the Bugün Kıbrıs newspaper, Cemil Önal, who managed slain Turkish Cypriot casino boss Halil Falyalı’s finances for years, described a money laundering and illegal betting operation with links stretching from Cyprus to Dubai and Belarus.
The more politically sensitive revelations, however, were not about the criminal enterprise itself. It was the collection of alleged blackmail videos.
Önal, detained in the Netherlands for 16 months and later released under protection after reportedly sharing evidence with Dutch and US authorities, claims that Turkey’s foreign minister, Fidan, sent an envoy to retrieve 45 videos allegedly containing compromising material involving figures from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The envoy, Yasin Ekrem Serim — then Turkey’s ambassador to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) — was appointed in 2024, and Önal claims it was solely to recover the full blackmail archive from Falyalı’s widow. Serim, a close family associate of Erdoğan and son of his long-serving financial aide Maksut Serim, was assigned to Nicosia despite limited diplomatic credentials.
According to Önal, cited by Bugün Kıbrıs, Serim secured most of the videos but held back five, possibly for his own protection or due to the people involved. When Fidan discovered the archive was incomplete, he is said to have handed the material over to intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın. The missing videos reportedly mentioned the sons of both Fidan and former prime minister Binali Yıldırım.
President Erdoğan, informed of the situation, recalled Serim and dismissed him from his post. The government has provided no public explanation, but the foreign ministry issued a statement on Sunday rejecting the allegations as baseless and stating that legal action would be taken.
The question of why Ankara only moved to retrieve the recordings in 2024 — more than two years after Falyalı’s murder — remains open. Some speculate that developments in 2024, including potential international interest in the archive, may have triggered the operation.
The backdrop to Önal’s claims is a growing struggle over succession in Turkish politics. Erdoğan, now 71 and appearing less frequently in public, has not named a successor. His younger son Bilal Erdoğan is widely believed to be his preferred heir, but his lack of a formal role and mixed support among the elite have kept the field open.
Among the alternatives, Fidan has spent years cultivating a reputation as a discreet and capable operator — first as head of the intelligence agency, now as foreign minister. His distance from party politics and scandal has helped elevate his profile as a figure aligned with the “state” rather than with political factions.
Another name mentioned from time to time is former defense minister Hulusi Akar. A career military officer who transitioned into cabinet roles, Akar is seen by some as a steady hand with institutional experience. Though he has shown no overt ambition for leadership, his public image has remained relatively intact, and he commands a degree of respect within parts of the establishment.
By contrast, previous contenders such as former interior minister Süleyman Soylu and Erdoğan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak have seen their prospects diminished — Soylu due to corruption allegations publicized by mobster-turned-whistleblower Sedat Peker, and Albayrak following the fallout from his economic policies.
Fidan’s low-profile approach had set him apart from those more politically exposed. Now, Önal’s account challenges the perception that he remains above the fray. The allegations cast a shadow over his carefully maintained image and suggest that even those considered institutional actors may not be immune to the turbulence surrounding Erdoğan’s eventual departure.
Önal’s interviews also detailed how Falyalı’s illegal gambling empire allegedly funneled roughly $15 million a month in “sponsorship” payments — much of it in cash — to Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials. These transactions, he claimed, were structured to avoid detection, often routed through jewelry exchanges or carried by couriers.
The KKTC, once seen as a projection of Turkish diplomatic influence, now appears increasingly entangled in illicit networks. Falyalı’s partnership with southern Cyprus crime boss Loukas Fanieros, as reported by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Bugün Kıbrıs, allowed the laundering of gambling proceeds through a web of offshore companies and real estate schemes.
According to Önal, money from illegal betting operations passed through shell companies in southern Cyprus, where it was collected and smuggled north with protection from both local criminal actors and officials. Turkish banks were intentionally excluded from the cycle, he claims, to prevent Ankara from noticing the scale of revenue and demanding further cuts.
In addition to his claims about the Serim family and Fidan, Önal has named other senior officials as past recipients of bribes from the Falyalı network, including former vice president Fuat Oktay and ex-interior minister Soylu.
Some of the infrastructure used to launder money from the gambling empire reportedly included the now-notorious digital payments company Payfix. Turkish investigative journalists have pointed to its alleged role in laundering millions of dollars via cryptocurrency, gold, and offshore accounts. OCCRP and Turkish reporters have also drawn connections between Payfix and the purchase of a local bank, raising questions about how regulatory authorities allowed such transactions to proceed.
If even only a fraction of Önal’s claims hold weight, they may have implications far beyond northern Cyprus. The controversy has already complicated Ankara’s efforts to control the narrative amid nationwide protests following the jailing of opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu and amid international scrutiny over democratic backsliding.
Whether the alleged blackmail archive ever surfaces remains uncertain. But even in rumored form, it has cast a shadow over Fidan and disrupted what had been, until now, a carefully curated image that made him the candidate to fill Erdoğan’s shoes in the eyes of many analysts.