Just one day before the terror attack in Iran’s city of Kerman which killed more than 100 people, the Turkish authorities arrested 34 people alleged to cooperated with the Israeli Secret Service MOSSAD.
The Turkish counter-terrorism operation was labeled “mole” and pursued jointly by state attorney, police and National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
The Minister of Interior, Ali Yerlikaya stated that the suspects were pursuing plans of “observation, pursuit, assault and hijacking” targeting persons of foreign citizenship on Turkish soil.
Yerlikaya added, “we will never allow any espionage activities targeting our nation’s unity and brotherhood.” Besides of the 34 detained, there are arrest warrants for 12 people more. Authorities declared that video recordings of the espionage activities are included into the arrest warrants. The detained have Turkish and Palestinian citizenship, the press reported.
The arrest comes roughly a month after Israeli politicians threatened attacks on Turkish soil. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had stated on November 22 to have ordered “MOSSAD to eliminate Hamas leaders wherever they are”.
Beginning of December, Ronen Bar, head of Israeli Secret Service Shin Bet, had stated on a TV show to kill Hamas leaders “in every location, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Türkiye, in Qatar. It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it.”
Several Hamas leaders have lived on Turkish soil for years, others are frequent and official guests in the country. The Turkish government has protested publicly against the Israeli threats, warning that such an act of assassination would lead to “severe consequences”.
We consulted on the issue ret. Lieutenant General Ismail Hakkı Pekin. Pekin was head of Intelligence at the Turkish Armed Forces’ General Staff, he has thus quite an experience on the matter.
“All states maintain elements on other states’ soil to gather information. These do not need to be secret spies, they also can be normal intelligence members. They try to gather information about the country’s in general and its weak spots specifically. Their responsible for the country collects the info and sends it to his headquarters. MOSSAD then analyses the data and draws a program. That is nothing unexpected.”
But the assassination of Hamas leaders in Beirut and the threats to pursue them also on Turkish soil changes the panorama, says Pekin.
“The Turkish President had back then warned against such steps, stating it would bear a heavy cost for Israel. This operation now may force the Israeli agency to take a step back of given plans.”
According to Pekin, both sides do not want an escalation between secret services.
“Türkiye and Israel do not want the relations to deteriorate further. That’s why Türkiye is also acting carefully. Such counter-espionage operations are very frequent, but usually, they are not made public. In this case, the matter of fact they were announced to the public may also be evaluated as a political warning to Israel to step back.”
Pekin says he does “not expect an assassination attempt on Turkish soil, because that would deteriorate the relations very seriously”. “This might make it impossible to restore relations once the war is over”, he adds.
But he adds that MOSSAD continues working: “They follow the persons, try to find out whether these are in contact with the government, whom they relate to. They want all that kind of information. Türkiye on the other side has approved its counter-espionage capabilities in recent years. There is a deputy chairman inside the National Intelligence Organization whose area of work is specifically to avoid such operations. He has a whole unit and certain special forces working on the matter.”
And he repeats he expects no escalation: “Intelligence agencies work against each other, but they also communicate. Right now, the MIT and the MOSSAD probably maintain communication. And they do not want an escalation of operations. Probably, someone from the MIT called the MOSSAD and told them directly to stop such operations.”