The designation of Sir Richard Moore CMG, a former British Ambassador to Turkey and “former” MI6 agent, as the Chief of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6), is seen as a great boon for Turkey. Hurriyet Daily News columnist Serkan Demirtas writes that Moore’s appointment “has been very much welcomed in Turkey as thousands of social media users congratulated him” and rejoiced at his promotion. Demirtas continues that as ambassador to Turkey in 2014-18, given his fluency in Turkish, he was popular and that, “Moore, along with his successor Ambassador Dominick Chilcott, has been the architect of a new and empowered relationship between the U.K and Turkey, two non-EU NATO allies one on the northern flank and the other on the southern.”
Demirtas writes that in an interview with him in 2018, when Moore has left Turkey to become director-general for Political Affairs at the Foreign Office, Moore said that Turkey and the U.K. “will be in a club of two,” and he expects “a special relationship” between the two countries once the U.K. leaves the European Union.
Demirtas said he expects closer cooperation between Moore as MI6 Chief and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) led by Hakan Fidan. Demirtas pointed out that the change occurs at a time when, last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged for the MIT to have a greater role in Turkey’s expanding security policy in the region, particularly regarding to Syria and Libya: “Thus, more dialogue and cooperation between MI6 and MIT should not be surprising for anybody.” Demirtas concluded, “Under Moore’s helm, one may only envisage a deeper and effective institutional relationship between the two intelligence services.”
This sounds as if the British Empire will be going back to the days when it was the chief sponsor of the Ottoman Empire, using it against its targets, such as Russia and in the early days of the United States republic.
