TURKEY ARRESTS 7 OVER ALLEGED MOSSAD LINKS

Tue 05 March 2024:

Turkish police have detained seven people, including a private detective, suspected of selling information to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Tuesday.

Anadolu cited security sources as saying the private detective, a former public servant, was suspected of gathering information on Middle Eastern companies and individuals in Turkiye, placing tracking devices and engaging in surveillance, Reuters reports.

The sources said the detentions were part of an operation carried out by Turkiye’s national intelligence agency, MIT, and Istanbul counter-terror police.

Ankara made no official statement on the operation. Israel did not immediately comment on the Anadolu report.

The Turkish detective was trained by Mossad in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and received payments in crypto currency that did not appear in official records, the sources said.

Turkish and Israeli leaders have traded public barbs since Israel’s war with the Palestinian group, Hamas, began last October. Turkiye has warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside the Palestinian Territories, including in Turkiye.

The arrests mark Turkey’s third major crackdown on alleged Mossad activities within its territory this year. In January, Turkish authorities arrested 15 people and a court deported eight others accused of working with Mossad to target Palestinians in the country. In February, Turkey arrested seven people for allegedly passing intel to Mossad for money.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel amid the war in Gaza, calling it a “terror state” waging a “genocide”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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