Turkey’s top diplomat revealed in an interview on Friday that he was poisoned with arsenic and mercury during his tenure as head of Turkey’s intelligence agency.
“I survived an assassination attempt,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a live interview with Turkish broadcaster 24 TV.
Fidan said the attempt took place four or five years ago when he was the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
“It was four or five years ago,” Fidan said, adding, “I was given a heavy dose of arsenic and mercury. … It later showed up in the tests.”
When asked who the culprit might be, Fidan refused to give further details but hinted that it took place abroad.
“Well, let’s not go into those details,” Fidan said. “The enemies aren’t just inside [our country]. They’re everywhere.”
Fidan was appointed by then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the head of Turkey’s MİT in May 2010 at the age of 42, becoming the youngest ever MİT chief to date.
After 13 years as MİT chief, President Erdoğan appointed him as Turkey’s foreign minister in June 2023.
His remarks on Friday are the first public revelation of an assassination attempt on Turkey’s intelligence chief.