Istanbul [Turkey], January 3: Turkey announced on Tuesday it had detained 34 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of the Zionist entity's Mossad intelligence service. The raids came just weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of "serious consequences" should the Zionist entity try to target figures from Palestinian militant group Hamas living or working in Turkey.
Turkey does not view Hamas as a terrorist organization and has hosted the Islamic group's political leaders for much of the past decade. A Turkish security source told AFP that most of the 34 people detained were foreign nationals whom Mossad recruited for "operations targeting Palestinians and their family members". "We are determined to ensure that absolutely no foreign intelligence agency can operate on Turkish soil without proper authorization," the security source said.
Turkish government released video footage showing armed security service agents breaking down doors and handcuffing suspects in their homes. The Istanbul public prosecutor's office said 12 additional suspects remained at large. "There is an insidious operation and sabotage attempts being made against Turkey and its interests," Erdogan said after the raids were announced.
Relations between Turkey and the Zionist entity imploded following the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly three months ago. Erdogan has turned into one of the world's harshest critics of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Turkish leader last week compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and demanded that the Zionist entity's Western allies drop their support for the "terrorism" being conducted by Zionist troops in Gaza.
Erdogan has also recalled Ankara's envoy to Tel Aviv, and pushed for the trial of Zionist commanders and political leaders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The president's ruling Islamic, conservative AKP party also led tens of thousands of protesters out on the streets of Istanbul on Monday for one of Turkey's biggest rallies against the Zionist government of the entire war.
The war in Gaza has put an end to a gradual thawing in Turkish-Zionist relations that culminated with the reappointment of ambassadors in 2022. The Zionist entity and Turkey resumed long-stalled talks about a major Mediterranean Sea natural gas pipeline project that could have reshaped geopolitical alliances across parts of the Middle East.
Turkey won words of gratitude from the Zionist entity in 2022 for detaining a group of Turkish and Iranian nationals were allegedly planning to murder and kidnap Zionist tourists in Istanbul. Erdogan and Netanyahu met briefly on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York in September and were discussing holding a formal summit this year.
The Turkish MIT intelligence service conducts periodic raids against suspected Zionist operatives working in major cities such as Ankara and Istanbul. Most are accused of conducting surveillance work on Palestinians living in Turkey. Istanbul served as one of Hamas' foreign political offices until the outbreak of the Gaza war. Turkey informally asked Hamas leaders to leave, days after militants conducted raids into the Zionist entity on Oct 7. - AFP
Source: Kuwait Times
