Ankara does not stop its intelligence activities: The Turkish newspaper Aksham, which is affiliated with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported this morning (Saturday) that for the past six years, the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT) has carried out anti-espionage operations against Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Iran , Russia and 16 other countries.
The purpose behind the activities of the department at the Turkish intelligence agency, which is intended to thwart such espionage operations, according to Aksham, is to obtain intelligence to prevent espionage within the country's territories.
In fact the "glorious" report, Erdogan aims to raise political capital ahead of the country's elections, which will be held in June 2023.
Turkish President Erdogan in Ankara, Photo: Reuters
Another Turkish newspaper, Sabah, which is also affiliated with Erdogan, reported on Tuesday that MIT had captured a 15-member institution unit, which was divided into cells of three people each.
According to the report, the unit’s mission was to gather intelligence after Turkish citizens and foreign students living in the country.
Sabah also reported that all Israeli agents, all of Arab descent, were captured on October 7 by the agency.
Now, according to the report, the investigation is expected to expand.
As you may recall, about three weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority stormed after seven Palestinians disappeared in the country.
They disappeared in Istanbul, Konya (central Turkey) and the border region of Turkey and Greece.
Three of them are residents of the Gaza Strip and four are from Judea and Samaria.
Sabah even claimed that their names and photos were obtained thanks to field surveillance, which lasted about a month.
The same agents were in contact with senior members of the Mossad's field forces, and provided them with various information and documents regarding the surveillance targets.
Potential Mossad targets who are Turkish citizens may be senior Hamas figures living in Istanbul.
Palestinians missing in Turkey, Photo: No credit
Last week, it was reported in Turkey that the agency captured on September 24 eight agents, two Iranians and six Turks, who planned to carry out a kidnapping.
According to reports in the country, the two Iranians tried to create a unit with a budget of 30 thousand dollars, with the aim of abducting a former Iranian soldier, MA, to Tehran.
His name, from the Van province bordering Iran.
Members of the abduction squad were instructed by Iranian superiors to offer $ 10,000 in bribes to MA's wife in order to assist in his abduction.
The Turkish investigation revealed that the woman was threatened that if she refused, her family in Iran would be harmed.
Finally, members of the Turkish intelligence agency and the Turkish security forces captured the members of the unit, after they were sent from Iran to Van province in a vehicle where they could lead MA.
To Iran.
On the evening of September 24, a Turkish citizen and an Iranian citizen were captured as soon as they entered the MA residence building.
To kidnap him.
"The timing of the exposure in 'Sabah' is intended to divert the attention of the Turkish people from the ongoing devaluation of the Turkish pound and, apparently, it is closing the circle of the Palestinian disappearance affair last month," Dr. Chai Eitan Cohen Yinrog told Israel Today K, a researcher in modern Turkey at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.
He said, "Only last week there was an operation against the Iranians. This is a message to Tehran that Ankara is acting against all the countries that carry out intelligence activities on its territory."