Turkish columnist: Turkey plans to cancel secret agreements with Israel
22 October 2013 /TODAY’S ZAMAN, ANKARA – The recent media reports against Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan may stem from Tel Aviv’s unease about Fidan’s intention to cancel secret agreements between Israel and Turkey that allow Mossad agents to conduct operations in Turkish airports without any visa requirements or customs controls, Yeni Şafak daily columnist Abdülkadir Selvi has claimed.
In his column published on Tuesday, Selvi stated that in the periods when democratically elected governments in Turkey did not have full control over the ruling of the country, through secret agreements, Israeli intelligence service Mossad has been given authorization to conduct operations in Turkish airports without facing any restrictions and MİT chief Fidan is preparing to stop this. Israel’s unease about Fidan’s intention, Selvi claimed, may lie behind the accusations against Fidan in the international media.
Selvi also stressed that in the forthcoming days MİT is expected to apply to the Prime Ministry for the cancelation of the agreements concerning Mossad’s operations in Turkish airports. In an Oct. 17 article titled “Turkey Exposed 10 Israeli Agents in Iran,” Jewish Press journalist Yori Yanover suggested Turkish intelligence chief Fidan should be assassinated. “If anyone deserves to find a special surprise in his car one morning, it’s [Hakan] Fidan, the Turkish spy chief. He is a key Erdoğan man, who was handed the MIT in 2010,” he wrote.
David Ignatius of The Washington Post has quoted “knowledgeable sources” as saying that the Turkish government disclosed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu rejected the claims about Turkey’s intelligence chief as “untrue” and a bad example of “black propaganda.” He said the claims about Fidan do not reflect the truth and that the first duty of a spy chief is to take the necessary measures for the security of the country. Stressing that the content and timing of a series of news reports about Fidan in Western media outlets were important, the foreign minister added that claims about the intelligence chief also indicated how well he executed his duties.