Nine detained in eastern Turkey over spying for Iran’s intelligence agency

“Correspondence between the suspects and Iranian intelligence officials and records of phone conversations with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.”

29 August 2012 / TODAYSZAMAN.COM, – The Turkish police detained nine people, including an Iranian individual, in simultaneous operations on Tuesday on charges of spying for Iran’s National Intelligence and Security Organization (SAVAK) and planning to fuel insurgency among the Kurdish population in Turkey’s South and Southeast.

Police detained six people in the province of Iğdır, one in Ağrı and another in Kocaeli in raids on suspicion of spying on Syrian opposition activists for SAVAK and seized a Kalashnikov rifle, a shotgun and documents and secret correspondence between the suspects and Iranian intelligence officials and records of phone conversations with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.

The suspects are also accused of planning to start an insurgency among Kurds in the south and the southeastern parts of the country and illegally obtaining information on Syrians taking refuge in Turkey due to the heightened violence in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Iğdır’s Governor’s Office said in a statement on Wednesday that the police detained eight people in simultaneous operations on Tuesday at 5 a.m. The statement, however, did not make any reference to an Iranian individual among those detained, unlike initial reports. The governor’s office also assured the public that the espionage investigation is ongoing. The investigation began last year in August when the Turkish police found a photograph of the Iğdır Provincial Gendarmerie Command building in a minibus in Iğdır and detained a Turkish individual and two suspects of Iranian origin, identified as Shahram Zargham Kohei and Mohammed Reza Esmaeilpour Ali Malek, on charges of taking photos of police stations and buildings belonging to military units in the area that have strategic importance.

The two were then arrested under Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 327, which criminalizes the acquisition of state security information for unauthorized individuals. In his initial testimony, Kohei said he was working for an Iranian company that specializes in elevator systems and he was taking photos of the big buildings in the area with the intention of installing elevators.

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