A broad, sophisticated, and largely covert Turkish influence operation – widely discussed but rarely documented – has been quietly unfolding across the United States in recent years.
A key component of that network came to light only days ago, through an investigation by Israeli analyst and researcher Eitan Fischberger, who spoke to Kathimerini about how a trail of technical, digital, operational and political evidence ultimately led him to Ankara.
At the center of the investigation is Clash Report, an account that had emerged as one of the most prominent news platforms on X, specializing in geostrategic analysis and international conflicts. With hundreds of thousands of followers and a reputation for credibility within journalistic and political circles in Washington, its content was frequently amplified, at times even by US officials themselves.
According to Fischberger, it is precisely this aura of established legitimacy that makes the revelations so troubling, as Clash Report ultimately appears to have functioned as a highly effective vehicle for advancing pro-Turkish narratives.
Change in location
His investigation began with a detail that most people would likely have overlooked. “The first time my interest and concern was really triggered was a few months ago, when X rolled out a new feature allowing users to see the location of accounts. So, for example, if you’re based in Washington, DC, your account would appear as being located in the United States and connected through the US app store. When that feature first appeared, the Clash Report account was clearly listed as being based in Turkey and connected through the Turkish app store. A few days later, though, I checked again, and the app showed it as being based in ‘West Asia’ and connected through the West Asia app store. That likely means that someone behind the Clash Report operation made a deliberate effort to conceal their location, probably by deleting and reinstalling the app while using a VPN, or by altering the account’s regional settings. I can’t say exactly what they did, but it was clear they were trying to avoid appearing openly connected to Turkey. That was the first real red flag for me, because it is not something a normal account typically does.”
What ultimately prompted him to pursue the investigation more seriously, however, was not technical but editorial in nature. “What really got me to launch this investigation into them was that after President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury at the end of February, there was sort of a shift in the content that Clash Report would promote. It was always very conspiratorial and very anti-Israel, anti-Greece, anti-US content but something shifted. I can’t even describe properly what it was, but it was almost like orders were given to just ramp up the Iranian propaganda. So they started pumping out narratives straight from the IRGC, straight from Tehran, at a pace that I had not seen from them before. And so then I thought to myself, something is happening here. And I finally got around to it a few weeks ago.”
From the very first findings, he says, it became clear the case ran deep. One of the most significant discoveries was the connection to the Turkish-owned company Monolog Medya. The iOS app for Clash Report on the app store is registered under a single developer – that specific company. The same account also includes other applications, such as GDH, described as the Turkish version of Clash Report, while the official website listed is gdh.digital. The technical evidence strengthened his suspicions.
As Fischberger explains to Kathimerini, “both domains share identical Cloudflare name servers, meaning they are managed under a single account. Both websites serve images from the same CDN storage bucket, which is named after GDH, meaning Clash Report’s photos are being delivered from GDH’s infrastructure. Historical hosting records place both domains on the same Istanbul-based server provider, on consecutive IP addresses.” In simple terms, the two platforms are not independent, but part of the same umbrella.
The foundation
From there, the investigation began shedding light on the political dimension of the case. According to publicly available records, Monolog Medya has only two clients. One appears irrelevant, but the second is TURGEV, a foundation originally established by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and still closely tied to his family.
“It is now run with his daughter Esra as a board member, and his son Bilal is also involved. And then there is another connection – to Erdogan’s son-in-law, Selcuk Bayraktar, who is a billionaire drone manufacturer. He runs something called Teknofest through his foundation. And Monolog, according to the infrastructure data I found, actually operated backend servers for Teknofest for almost three years,” he says.
One of the most striking findings of the investigation concerns the methodology behind the account’s influence operations. According to Fischberger, Clash Report appears to use the so-called “90-10” tactic: 90% of the content consists of credible, fact-based reporting designed to build trust with audiences, while the remaining 10% serves a very different purpose. “It’s essentially a tactic that dates back to the KGB era,” he explains. “They realized that one of the most effective ways to spread destabilizing narratives was to blend truth with falsehoods … Because the audience already trusts the source, they are far more likely to accept those fringe narratives as credible.”
The effectiveness of the operation was remarkable. “When the war was launched, I remember seeing content like ‘Operation Epstein Fury’ going viral and Clash Report was one of the accounts leading that narrative. You had senators, congressmen, European parliamentarians sharing their posts. Journalists were using them as sources. It was a disaster.”
No response
Despite the revelations, there has been no official response. Fischberger says he attempted to contact all parties involved – Clash Report, Monolog Medya and GDH – but without success. “The emails no longer work. The inboxes are gone.” At the same time, however, there were other reactions. “Instead of responses, coordinated attacks appeared, along with a sudden surge in traffic coming from Turkey.”
In Fischberger’s view, the case is far from isolated, but instead part of a much broader ecosystem of influence operations targeting Washington and the West more broadly. “Everyone wants to influence the West” he says. “It would be irrational not to. But not everyone has the capability to do it effectively.” It is exceptionally rare, he notes, to expose an influence operation in real time, particularly one that can be directly connected to centers of power inside a foreign state.
“It’s incredibly unusual to be able to trace a social media phenomenon like Clash Report back to actual political and institutional power structures in a foreign country. You almost never see that happen. That’s why it was so important for me to map this network out as meticulously as possible. I want the public to understand what’s happening. My first objective, obviously, is to help disrupt the influence operation itself. I believe what the Erdogan regime is doing is deeply harmful and I view it as fundamentally hostile to the West.”
At the same time, the analyst stresses that Turkey is not operating exclusively in the shadows, nor always attempting to conceal its activities. “What’s important to understand is that Turkey isn’t exactly hiding the ball here. Yes, there was clearly an effort to conceal the origins of Clash Report. But at the very same time, Turkey already operates two major influence platforms openly inside the United States, TRT and Anadolu. These are state-run outlets. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, at least one of them is registered under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act]. And yet they consistently push anti-Western and anti-American narratives without facing any meaningful consequences.”
As he concludes, however, “there also needs to be a broader conversation about overt influence operations as well. Because we are talking about state-run foreign media organizations operating inside the United States while advancing narratives aligned with a foreign government and doing so with very little accountability.”
Loomer weighs in
It is worth noting that in a recent social media post, commentator and researcher Laura Loomer – known for her often controversial role in public debate – claimed she had received information from a “CIA source” allegedly providing evidence that American commentators and podcasters were being funded by Turkey in an effort to shape public discourse in the United States. Loomer also publicly congratulated Fischberger on the findings of his investigation.