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German court opens trial against Turkish spy

September 7, 2017 By administrator

A German court has opened a trial against 32-year-old Mehmet Fatih S., who is accused of working for the Turkish intelligence agency MIT. He reportedly posed as a journalist to gain access to Kurdish politicians, DW reported.

German prosecutors say that the Turkish man has worked for the Turkish intelligence service since 2013. Between September 2015 and his arrest in December 2016, his mission was allegedly to spy on the Kurdish community in Germany, focusing on Kurds based in Bremen.

The Turkish MIT agency allegedly paid the man $35,800 for his services. Mehmet Fatih S. is said to have moved to the northern city of Bremen in January 2016 to get closer to Kurdish politician Yuksel Koc. There, he spoke to Koc’s acquaintances and gathered information online to learn more details about his life, posing as a reporter for a Kurdish TV broadcaster.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: German court, spy, Turkish

Azerbaijani Spy Scandal Leaves Trail Of Dead Suspects, “wave of arrests on espionage charges”

June 16, 2017 By administrator

azerbaijan spy ScandalWithin days of being swept up in a wave of arrests on espionage charges last month, at least four Azerbaijani soldiers and a retired military officer died in custody. The circumstances of their deaths are shrouded in secrecy.

Azerbaijan’s government and military have refused to comment on the deaths, news of which emerged shortly after authorities in May announced the spy scandal.

Journalists who initially reported on the deaths have been warned by the Prosecutor-General’s Office to stop. And most relatives of the dead soldiers are reluctant to speak to journalists, with some expressing fear about their own safety if they do.

The silence, Baku’s poor human rights record, and the way Azerbaijan’s military hastily buried the soldiers without letting relatives see their bodies, have fed rumors that the suspects were tortured to death while being interrogated.

Spying For Armenia

The spy scandal came to light on May 7 when a joint statement was issued by the State Security Service, the Prosecutor-General’s Office, the Interior Ministry, and the Defense Ministry.

It said authorities had “opened a criminal case against a group of military personnel and civilians in Azerbaijan” on charges of “treason against the state.”

The statement said members of the spy ring had worked for the intelligence services of archrival Armenia “at various times in the past” and “for their own interest.”

It also said they provided “state secrets” to Armenia, which Azerbaijan has been locked in conflict with over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. The two countries fought a bloody war in the 1990s over the breakaway region of Azerbaijan, which is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians and is now controlled by Armenian-backed separatists.

Secretive Arrests

Azerbaijan’s authorities have not named any individuals accused in the spy case or specified how many suspects were arrested and charged.

But Ilham Ismayil, a former State Security Service officer, told RFE/RL that a total of 42 people were arrested in raids during May — mostly in the Terter region.

Ismayil told RFE/RL that the spy scandal stemmed from an incident in late 2016 when a group of Armenian military officers allegedly were allowed to cross from Nagorno-Karabakh and travel behind Azerbaijan’s front lines with the help of Azerbaijani officers.

He said some Armenian officers were given Azerbaijani military uniforms to wear and that they traveled to the center of Terter — a city that was heavily damaged by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

State Security Service chief Madat Guliyev said the roundup of spy-ring suspects was ordered by President Ilham Aliyev after investigators under Guliyev’s command provided evidence to both the president and the Defense Ministry. Based on that evidence, the Defense Ministry took action.

Neither the State Security Service nor Azerbaijan’s government has publicly disclosed the nature of the intelligence the suspects allegedly provided to Armenia.

And, so far, there have been no public court hearings for any of the suspects.

Suspicious Deaths

Yadigar Sadiqov, a politician from the opposition party Musavat, has suggested that the deaths in custody of so many suspects just days after their arrests is highly suspicious.

“We don’t believe they died of natural causes,” Sadiqov wrote in a May 20 opinion column for the Baku-based online newspaper Bastainfo.com.

Sadiqov also suggested many people in Azerbaijan assume the suspects were tortured to death, noting that “across social media, there are people saying the government was justified to torture and kill” them.

In each case, the suspects were detained in raids close to the contact line that separates Armenian-backed and Azerbaijani forces near Nagorno-Karabakh.

Within days, their dead bodies were returned to their home villages and buried by soldiers who did not allow relatives to see them.

Opposition media in Azerbaijan that have reported about the deaths and burials have been officially warned they would be prosecuted for revealing “state secrets” if they published any more information about the spy case that wasn’t officially released by state institutions.

With the exception of a cousin of one dead soldier who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from authorities, relatives of the deceased suspects have refused to talk to RFE/RL or other media organizations.

Amnesty International confirms that it has received complaints from sources within Azerbaijan alleging that the soldiers were tortured to death.

But Levan Asatiani, Amnesty International’s campaigner on the South Caucasus, says his organization cannot immediately confirm the torture claims because Azerbaijan has become a “closed country” that blocks the work of international human rights researchers.

“We have not been able to verify those reports regarding soldiers and torture in the military,” Asatiani explained. “But Amnesty International generally has concerns about torture and ill treatment in Azerbaijan — specifically in the penitentiary institutions and the detention facilities.”

He said Azerbaijan has a well-documented history of using torture to induce false confessions from political prisoners who are lawyers, journalists, and opposition activists.

“You could say that the use of torture is a trend in Azerbaijan,” Asatiani said.

Hasty Burials

Namized Safarov, a Baku-based human rights lawyer, told RFE/RL that a retired military officer named Saleh Qafarov was arrested on treason charges in early May at his village of Aydinqyshlaq in the Gabala region.

Safarov said Azerbaijani soldiers returned Qafarov’s body four days later for burial in the village, but Qafarov’s relatives never saw his remains and were not allowed to attend the burial.

Since then, Safarov said, Qafarov’s family has faced “heavy harassment” from other villagers angered by the treason allegations. Qafarov’s children have been expelled from school.

Imran Cabbarov, the head of the local government in Aydinqyshlaq, confirmed that Qafarov died in custody.

“He died and was buried,” Cabbarov told RFE/RL. “Only law-enforcement bodies can talk about it. If he committed such a crime as treason, it would serve him right.”

Bastainfo.com and the Berlin-based independent website Meydan TV reported similar circumstances when the bodies of other suspects in the spy case were returned to their villages.

Temkin Nizamioglu, a 24-year-old lieutenant from the Ordubad region near Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran, was one of at least three active military officers reportedly arrested in the case.

Nizamioglu was buried in his village of Darkend by Azerbaijani soldiers who returned his body.

“It’s true that his body was brought to the village for burial, and according to the soldiers who brought him, he had heart problems and died in a hospital,” the village’s municipal chief, Raqib, said.

The body of officer Elcin Quliyev was delivered for burial in his town of Terter on May 18 shortly after he was arrested in the spy case.

A cousin of Quliyev, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Meydan TV that the soldiers who returned his body didn’t give the family any details about the cause of his death.

“They just said they were investigating the issue and would inform us about the cause of his death when that investigation is finished,” the cousin said.

Mehman Huseynov, a military officer from the village of Agkend in the Terter region, also died in custody within days of being arrested in the spy case.

Local residents refused to allow Huseynov to be buried in the village cemetery because of the treason accusations against him.

Meydan TV also reported that a 32-year-old soldier named Elcin Mirzaliyev was buried in his village of Shalig in the Ucar region, within days of being arrested in the case.

That report said Mirzaliyev died on May 25 and was returned to his village the next day by soldiers who buried him without allowing relatives to see his body or attend his burial.

The head of Shalig’s municipality, Arif Ahmadov, confirmed that Mirzaliyev was buried but would not give any details about the cause of his death.

There have been anonymous claims on social media that other Azerbaijani soldiers have died in custody after being arrested for treason in the spy scandal.

RFE/RL could not confirm the veracity of those reports or attest to the reliability of the sources.

Written by RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz, with reporting from RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Azerbaijan, scandal, spy

Baku will lose more land in new Karabakh war: Russia ex-spy chief

March 18, 2017 By administrator

The desire to settle the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict by force or a new war will not yield any result, except the complication of the issue and possible loss of more territories for Azerbaijan, Russia’s former intelligence chief said, according to Haqqin.az.

Vyacheslav Trubnikov, a journalist, political scientist, spy and a diplomat, has worked as the director of Foreign Intelligence Service and a first deputy of foreign minister of Russia. Also, in the 1990s he was the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, tasked with the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Russia will go to great lengths to ensure that hostilities don’t resume under any circumstances, he said.

“This, after all, is a matter of national security, and we won’t allow a new round of conflict. As an OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country, we will seek options for its settlement,” Trubnikov said.

According to the diplomat, no pressure on either side will give any results.

The Armenian side now has more advantages than Azerbaijan, Trubnikov said, citing control over Karabakh and the safe zone surrounding it.

“Armenia will play its trump cards to the maximum in the negotiation process, while pressure could yield the opposite effect. Therefore, it is necessary to patiently convince the parties to work towards a peaceful solution to the problem,” he said.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev met on June 20 in Saint Petersburg to address the conflict, with Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating the talks. The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents confirmed their commitment to the implementation of agreements reached at a Vienna-hosted meeting on May 16. To that end, they agreed to increase the number of international observers in the Karabakh conflict zone. Also, they expressed satisfaction that the ceasefire was now holding. Prior to that, a meeting between both leaders was organized on May 16 in Vienna, with top diplomats from the Minsk Group co-chairing countries hosting the summit.

Related links:

Haqqin.az. Экс-глава российской разведки: «Азербайджан разозлился на нас из-за Карабаха»

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Azerbaijan, Russian, spy, war

Turkish spy plane shot down near Iraqi-Turkish border, says PKK

September 8, 2015 By administrator

NB-145677-635773153534364930

Archival photo.

By Amre Sarhan,

(IraqiNews.com) The armed wing of the of the PKK announced on Tuesday shooting down a Turkish spy plane near the border with Iraq in the second incident in a week.

A spokesman for the PKK Bakhtiar Dogan in an interview with IraqiNews.com, “The PKK shot down, today, a spy plane in Metin area on the Iraqi-Turkey border,” pointing out that, “The plane was flying over the skies under the control of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party forces.”

Dogan added, “The plane, which was shot down, is Turkish-made aircraft.”

 

Source: IraqiNews

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: PKK, plane, shutdown, spy, Turkey

Turkey: HDP leader Demirtaş warns citizens not to spy on neighbors for money

August 31, 2015 By administrator

HDP Co-Chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Ali Ünal)

HDP Co-Chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Ali Ünal)

Co-chairperson of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş has criticized a recent law rewarding people who inform on terrorists in a sum of up to TL 4 million, warning citizens not to spy on their neighbors in exchange for money.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Demirtaş underlined the fact that Turkey has one of the largest militaries of the NATO member countries, in addition to police, gendarmerie and intelligence units.

“How can a country that has been claiming to be so big and powerful become desperate in spite of its all [security] forces and look to spying?” Demirtaş said. “My advice to all citizens is to not ever spy on your neighbors for money… Our people should turn down this call.”

According to a law that was published in the Official Gazette on Monday, people who inform on terrorists, help to have them detained, or reveal their identity anonymously will be rewarded with up to TL 200,000, an award that can be increased up to a total of TL 4 million with the approval of the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry will reward citizens who inform on terrorists as long as they are not involved in the crime of terrorism that they report and are not public officers or village guards. People who report terrorists can file an application for the reward with the concerned provincial police department.

The amount of the award will be determined according to the information, the crime that is exposed or the terrorist who is reported. The upper limit for the reward is TL 200,000; however, this amount can be multiplied twenty-fold, reaching to as much as TL 4 million.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: HDP, neighbors, spy, Turkey, warns

Germany suspends spy tech exports to Turkey over democratic regression

February 25, 2015 By administrator

Chancellor Merkel

Chancellor Merkel

German authorities have suspended the sale of intelligence equipment to Turkey over its NATO ally’s regressing democracy under the rule of Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which allegedly profiles its own citizens, Today’s Zaman has learned.

According to German official sources, Turkey applied Berlin to purchase audio surveillance equipment and software to be used by the National Police Department last year. However, German authorities have failed to approve Turkey’s request. While the process of such a sale would normally last 6-8 weeks, the sale has not taken place yet although more than six months have passed.

German Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is responsible for granting arms and intelligence technology export permits, is thought to have personally blocked the sale. Gabriel last year openly declared that he would use his right to veto surveillance and monitoring technologies export to anti-democratic countries to prevent spy software made in Germany from being used for internal repression by autocratic regimes.

Berlin’s new policy on spy technology export to Turkey comes on the heels of a series of diplomatic crises between the two countries in the past few years.  

The relations between Germany and Turkey, two NATO allies, received a sharp blow due to an intelligence crisis in August of last year, when leaked records revealed that Germany had been spying on Turkey since 2009. While this incident angered Turkish authorities, Germany remained mostly silent about the claims.

A report by German magazine Der Spiegel suggested that Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was and is still spying on Turkey, citing a confidential 2009 BND document.

Ties between Turkey and Germany were further strained after the recent arrest of three Turkish citizens in Germany on charges of spying on German-Turks for Turkish intelligence.

On Dec. 18, German federal prosecutors announced that three Turkish men had been arrested on charges of having close links with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and spying on their compatriots in Germany for MİT. The three men are in custody, pending a possible indictment.

Turkish officials have denied that the three Turkish men arrested in Germany have any links with MİT.

 

 

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: equipment, export, Germany, spy, suspends, Turkey

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