Turkey stays mum about arrest of Iranian woman who left Israel’s embassy
Turkey’s government continues to remain silent after shocking revelations last week that its powerful National Intelligence Organization (MIT) arrested an Iranian woman after her visit to Israel’s embassy in Ankara.
In a series of message exchanges with The Jerusalem Post, a
spokesman for Turkey’s government wrote last week: “Let me take it back and see
if we can get someone to respond.” A follow up query from the Post to the
spokesman prompted his response: “Will respond via email.”
When further pressed by the Post, the spokesman wrote on
Monday: “We have received your email. If there is a response, you will receive
it via email. Thank you.”
FoxNews.com first reported last week that a source told the
American news organization that “a woman who was incarcerated in Tehran’s
notorious Evin Prison – where the regime keeps most of its political prisoners
– was arrested leaving the Israeli embassy in Ankara by Turkish intelligence.”
The source added that Turkey’s government deported her to
Iran and into the hands of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The US government has classified Iran’s IRGC a terrorist
organization.
The Post confirmed the source’s account of the MIT’s
deportation of the Iranian woman to the IRGC. The IRGC has played a role in the
murder of hundreds of American military personnel in the Middle East.
According to the source, who declined to be named, the
Iranian woman “had been given 16 years on espionage and terrorism charges. She
had an Israeli boyfriend whom she had met in Europe and who she says works as a
doctor for the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”
The source continued that “the woman had visited Tel Aviv
with him on her Iranian passport and most likely was involved in doing
something for the Israelis. She is a practicing Muslim and would pray regularly
yet somehow felt drawn to or connected to Israel.”
Turkey’s apparent betrayal of Israel in Ankara is not the
first instance of Turkey’s Islamist government delivering an ostensible
intelligence setback to Israel. In 2013, The Washington Post columnist David
Ignatius reported a story titled “Turkey blows Israel’s cover for Iranian spy
ring.”
Ignatius wrote at the time that “the Turkish-Israeli
relationship became so poisonous early last year that the Turkish government of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to have disclosed to Iranian
intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside
Turkey with their Mossad case officers.”
Turkey’s alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran has
garnered widespread attention due its alleged role in helping Tehran evade US
sanctions.
Last week, an attorney for Turkey’s public lender financial
institution Halkbank urged the dismissal of a US legal case against the bank.
Halkbank faces an indictment for a complex case involving
charges of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy with respect to its use
of “money services and front companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab
Emirates” to bust US sanctions, according to the Erdogan-aligned Daily Sabah
paper.
According to the US prosecutor’s indictment in New York,
“High-ranking government officials in Iran and Turkey participated in and
protected this scheme,” which illegally delivered $20 billion of Iranian oil
profits.
Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, pleaded guilty
in 2017 for his critical role in the sanctions evasion enterprise. Zarrab said
Iran’s regime circumvented US sanctions through complex transactions involving
gold exchanges with the aid of Halkbank and the Turkish government.
Dr. Nikos Michailidis, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told the
Post Erdogan has forged a coalition with the ultra-nationalist networks in the
military and in the bureaucracy.
He said that "These groups promote closer ties with
Iran. We have seen reports that reveal how the Turkish regime has been
deporting Iranian citizens who have been trying to escape the Iran regime's
persecution. I also believe that Iran and Turkey collaborate closely in human
trafficking, by sending thousands of immigrants to Europe in order to
destabilize the EU's peripheral countries and cause social upheaval."
Michailidis, a leading expert on Turkey, added that
"Moreover, they are trying to undermine US interests and presence in the
region and threaten Israel. The Turkish regime engages in psychological
operations, trying to blind and influence Western governments by portraying
itself as a competitor of Tehran. But this is blatant propaganda. Turkish and
Iranian intelligence services collaborate closely in various fields. This
collaboration must be taken very seriously, analyzed deeply and dealt with
efficiently."
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