Levent Kenez/Stockholm
Turkish intelligence agency MİT has uncovered a 56-member cell suspected of working for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, according to an operation that was leaked to the Turkish media. Sabah, a newspaper affiliated with MİT, on Monday claimed that the suspects had confessed to working for Mossad and that seven people were arrested for spying. The unpublished details of the story show that the individuals and organizations that Mossad was seeking information on are Hamas front organizations supported by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Sabah report indicates that the Israeli government has established a remote online operations team based in Tel Aviv consisting of individuals from various Middle Eastern countries. The team’s primary objective is to gather biographical intelligence, location information and IP addresses. It has been discovered that they have even created fake internet news sites in different languages, including Arabic, to support their activities. The vast intelligence network, structured as a top-level intelligence cell, is managed and directed by nine Israeli intelligence operatives affiliated with Mossad. The Sabah story claims that MİT found out that this extensive intelligence network has achieved operational capabilities on an international scale.
According to the report, written by Abdurrahman Şimşek, who is often in the spotlight due to his alleged affiliation with MIT, Israel was secretly sending numerous spies, including Turks, to three different countries for training purposes. The first county was Serbia, then Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and finally Thailand, all under the guise of tourist travel. One common feature of these three countries is that they do not require visas for Turkish citizens. Therefore, the journey of these spies would end in Bangkok, where the secret Mossad training center was located.
Okan Albayrak, a Turkish citizen, allegedly received special training at the covert Mossad center in Thailand. The training covered various technical and tactical intelligence techniques, including conducting surveillance operations, escaping and evading MİT and counterintelligence measures and installing satellite tracking GPS devices on vehicles.
The report states that a group working for Mossad watched an office belonging to Hisham Younis Yahya Qafisheh, the Syrian chairman of the Trend Real Estate Investment Partnership, and the seizure of Qafisheh’s phone.
The person referred to as Hisham Younis Yahya Qafisheh in the report is actually a businessman named Haşmet Aslan, who was granted Turkish citizenship by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Contrary to Sabah’s report, Aslan is not Syrian but rather a Jordanian national. He began his real estate investments in Turkey in 2006 and has earned substantial profits from the sale of numerous residential, commercial and business properties. His company is also listed on the İstanbul Stock Exchange. In 2021 the company, in a letter sent to the Public Disclosure Platform as a legal requirement, stated that “Mr. Hisham Younis Yahya Qafisheh, the Vice Chairman of our Company, has changed his name to Haşmet Aslan due to obtaining Turkish citizenship.”
It is worth mentioning that Aslan was listed as a person associated with terrorism by the US Treasury in 2022.
Sabah reported an alleged attempt by Mossad to gather information on a charity organization called the Palestinian White Hands Association (Filistin Beyaz Eller Sağlık Ve Toplumsal Yardımlaşma Derneği). This organization, which was mistaken for a similarly named Turkish association operating in Syria due to multiple organizations with similar names, has a mission to provide medical treatment in Turkey for wounded Palestinians and deliver healthcare services to areas under Hamas control. Supported by the Turkish government, this charity works closely with the Ministry of Health and the Higher Education Board (YÖK). It also has connections with private hospitals in Turkey.
In 2021 British daily The Times pointed to the Palestinian White Hands Association as being among organizations operating in Turkey that Western intelligence sources suspect of being Hamas front charities. However, it also mentioned that Erdogan had started to restrict the activities of Hamas-affiliated organizations as part of his rapprochement with Israel.
The Sabah story does not mention the exact date of the operation or the specific dates when the suspects committed the alleged spying.
Nordic Monitor previously reported that the state-run Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) illegally transferred money allocated from discretionary funds to its office in Gaza for the use of Hamas by way of official trips, a senior bureaucrat who worked at the now-abolished Turkish Prime Ministry told Nordic Monitor. Nordic Monitor sources confirmed that some of the people who were presented as Gazan civilians were Hamas militants whose names were hidden in the hospital records. Two state hospitals, in particular, were assigned to that mission, one in İstanbul, the Kartal Teaching and Research Hospital and the other in Ankara, Batıkent State Hospital.
The timing of the leak of an operation allegedly involving Mossad in a newspaper run by the Erdogan family during a period of increasing rapprochement with Israel is quite significant. While the report seemingly confirms Turkey’s past support for Hamas, it also makes serious accusations against Israel without any mention of the involvement of Israeli citizens.
Experts contacted by Nordic Monitor do not consider the news to be a mere attempt to polish the image of MİT, which is frequently seen in the Turkish media. They suggest the possibility that Mossad may have carried out or planned a similar operation targeting individuals affiliated with MİT. They also suggest that Ibrahim Kalın, one of Erdogan’s close associates and the newly appointed head of MİT, conveys the message that there will be no change in MİT’s stance towards Mossad.
