Turkish Influence Operations in Bangladesh: Greater Bangladesh Map Revealed

Turk­ish influ­ence oper­a­tions in Bangladesh have inten­si­fied through the strate­gic deploy­ment of NGOs and polit­i­cal net­works pro­mot­ing ter­ri­to­r­i­al expan­sion under the guise of Islam­ic sol­i­dar­i­ty and human­i­tar­i­an aid. On 3 July 2025, The Cra­dle report­ed that Turk­ish-backed orga­ni­za­tion “Saltanat-e-Bangla” has been dis­sem­i­nat­ing a provoca­tive “Greater Bangladesh” map claim­ing parts of Myan­mar and sig­nif­i­cant Indi­an ter­ri­to­ries, reveal­ing Ankara’s sys­tem­at­ic attempt to estab­lish a strate­gic coun­ter­weight to Indi­an hege­mo­ny in South Asia. The arti­cle begins:

Bangladesh has become a for­ward oper­at­ing the­ater for Turkiye’s Eurasian ambi­tions. Geo­graph­i­cal­ly wedged between India and Myan­mar, the Mus­lim-major­i­ty coun­try offers fer­tile ground for Turk­ish influ­ence. The 2024 rise of Muham­mad Yunus’s gov­ern­ment – a pro-Islamist admin­is­tra­tion sym­pa­thet­ic to Ankara – has paved the way for Turk­ish actors to oper­ate not only as devel­op­ment part­ners but as cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal forces embed­ded with­in state and soci­ety. One such vehi­cle is “Saltanat-e-Bangla,” a Turk­ish-backed NGO based in Dha­ka that pub­licly iden­ti­fies with the rul­ing Jus­tice and Devel­op­ment Par­ty (AKP). This orga­ni­za­tion has gone well beyond char­i­ta­ble work, dis­sem­i­nat­ing a provoca­tive “Greater Bangladesh” map that claims parts of Myan­mar’s Rakhine State, as well as Indi­an ter­ri­to­ries includ­ing Bihar, Odisha, Jhark­hand, and Indi­a’s north­east region.

          Read more: https://thecradle.co/articles/how-turkiyes-eastward-ambitions-serve-the-atlanticist-order

Key Points

• Turk­ish-backed NGO “Saltanat-e-Bangla” pro­motes Greater Bangladesh map claim­ing Myan­mar’s Rakhine State and Indi­an ter­ri­to­ries, includ­ing Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand
• The 2024 rise of Muham­mad Yunus’s pro-Islamist gov­ern­ment in Bangladesh has facil­i­tat­ed Turk­ish polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al pen­e­tra­tion of state institutions
• Turkey deploys Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-style polit­i­cal Islam and human­i­tar­i­an oper­a­tions in Rohingya refugee camps to embed a long-term polit­i­cal presence
• Ankara’s Bangladesh oper­a­tions serve as a test­ing ground for export­ing Turk­ish polit­i­cal mod­els while chal­leng­ing Indi­an region­al hegemony

GIOR Analysis:

The Cra­dle arti­cle offers a geopo­lit­i­cal­ly rich and ide­o­log­i­cal­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed nar­ra­tive of Turkey’s expand­ing influ­ence in South and Cen­tral Asia, link­ing his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry, reli­gious soft pow­er, and infra­struc­tur­al strat­e­gy into a coher­ent vision. It suc­cess­ful­ly weaves togeth­er mul­ti­ple threads—pan-Turanism, Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-style Islamism, NATO syn­er­gy, and cul­tur­al diplomacy—into a sin­gle frame­work that is both provoca­tive and intel­lec­tu­al­ly engag­ing. How­ev­er, while the con­cep­tu­al archi­tec­ture is com­pelling, sev­er­al crit­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions must be acknowledged:

• Lack of sourc­ing: Key assertions—such as the sup­posed cir­cu­la­tion of a “Greater Bangladesh” map endorsed by rul­ing elites, or Turkish–Bengali inter­est in Tibet—are not sup­port­ed by cit­ed doc­u­ments or pri­ma­ry evi­dence. These are strik­ing claims that require ver­i­fi­ca­tion to move beyond speculation.

• Edi­to­r­i­al fram­ing: The tone reflects a clear skep­ti­cism toward Turkey’s inten­tions, view­ing its human­i­tar­i­an ini­tia­tives and civ­il soci­ety out­reach as veiled instru­ments of ide­o­log­i­cal pro­jec­tion. While not overt­ly polem­i­cal, this per­spec­tive aligns with out­lets known for their anti-AKP or anti-NATO edi­to­r­i­al lines.

• Poten­tial over­reach: The idea of a coor­di­nat­ed Turkish–Bengali–Pakistani axis span­ning from Cyprus to Tibet is ana­lyt­i­cal­ly stim­u­lat­ing, but like­ly over­states the coher­ence of Ankara’s for­eign pol­i­cy appa­ra­tus. It risks treat­ing oppor­tunis­tic align­ments as grand strategy.

That said, the piece excels at illu­mi­nat­ing under­ex­plored ide­o­log­i­cal link­ages, par­tic­u­lar­ly the his­tor­i­cal res­o­nance of the Ottoman Caliphate in South Asia and the mod­ern reac­ti­va­tion of those net­works through edu­ca­tion, media, and aid. Its dis­cus­sion of Turk­ish insti­tu­tion­al instru­ments (TIKA, IHH, TURKSOY, the Orga­ni­za­tion of Tur­kic States) is accu­rate and insight­ful. In sum, this analy­sis should be read as a hypoth­e­sis-build­ing frame­work, not a source of ver­i­fied facts. Its val­ue lies in stim­u­lat­ing fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion into how Ankara blends Islamist and nation­al­ist ide­olo­gies in its region­al pol­i­cy, and how those strate­gies may col­lide with the inter­ests of entrenched pow­ers like India, Chi­na, and Russia.

Turkey’s Islamist Influence: AKP, Muslim Brotherhood, and Global Operations

Turkey’s rul­ing AKP par­ty has fos­tered deep and com­plex ide­o­log­i­cal and orga­ni­za­tion­al rela­tion­ships with Islamist groups, espe­cial­ly the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, to project influ­ence across Europe and the wider Mus­lim world. Evi­dence of these exten­sive transna­tion­al net­works high­lights how AKP-linked actors work close­ly with pan-Euro­pean Mus­lim Broth­er­hood orga­ni­za­tions to shape reli­gious, polit­i­cal, and social dis­course. These con­nec­tions are not only his­tor­i­cal but are active­ly lever­aged through joint ini­tia­tives, think tanks, and dias­po­ra out­reach, as new plat­forms and part­ner­ships facil­i­tate strate­gic dia­logue and influ­ence oper­a­tions across Europe.

The AKP’s col­lab­o­ra­tion with Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed orga­ni­za­tions is fur­ther evi­denced by the estab­lish­ment of such plat­forms, which help coor­di­nate influ­ence cam­paigns and embed Turk­ish influ­ence with­in Euro­pean Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties. Reli­gious diplo­ma­cy also plays a cen­tral role, as Turk­ish reli­gious author­i­ties deep­en coop­er­a­tion with Euro­pean Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions, rais­ing ques­tions about com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with local demo­c­ra­t­ic norms. GIOR inves­ti­ga­tions have con­sis­tent­ly doc­u­ment­ed how these alliances are rein­forced by shared ide­o­log­i­cal goals, finan­cial net­works, and coor­di­nat­ed pub­lic mes­sag­ing, with the AKP’s sup­port for Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed groups in Europe spark­ing con­cerns about the export of polit­i­cal Islam and its impact on inte­gra­tion policies.

Exter­nal References:

1. A new Mus­lim Broth­er­hood out­fit oper­ates under the wing of the Erdo­gan gov­’t to exe­cute influ­ence oper­a­tions — Nordic Monitor

2. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and Turk­ish influ­ence in the Arab world — IQ News

3. Erdo­gan and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood: an out­side-in approach to Turk­ish for­eign pol­i­cy in the Mid­dle East — GIGA

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.