March 25, 2022
Turkish intelligence agents have arrested 17 people as they were plotting to kidnap an Iranian at the behest of the Islamic Republic. Separately, Turkey arrested eight others as part of a plot to kill an Israeli businessman in revenge for the Israeli killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
In each of those two cases, Turkey arrested one Iranian. But in each case, the leader of the plot was said to be an Iranian in Iran and beyond arrest.
With regard to the kidnaping plot, OdaTV, an online news portal, first said February 9 that 11 people had been arrested. The TR Haber news website later said 17 had been detained in simultaneous operations January 30.
Turkish authorities have not made any official announcement, but have not denied the news reports either.
OdaTV alleged that the kidnapers included a Turkish state prosecutor, the owner of a defense company, a retired Turkish Army colonel, and several Army sergeants plus one Iranian national.
It claimed the Iranian targeted by the kidnapers was Shah Nem, apparently an alias, who was wanted by Iran and lived in Zonguldak, a city in Turkey’s Black Sea region. The news portal alleged the “mastermind” was Ali Ghahraman-Hajiabad, an Iranian intelligence agent who returned to Iran after organizing the kidnap scheme and was not among those arrested.
OdaTV named another Iranian national, Morteza Soltan-Sanjali, as a “key link” in the operation and said he worked for Bye Saglam, a Turkish defense company, in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to OdaTV, Soltan-Sanjali traveled to Zonguldak to find the intended victim, learned that Turkey had discovered what was going on and was arrested by intelligence agents when attempting to reach Istanbul.
Days later, Turkey arrested eight people, all Turks but one, for allegedly plotting to kill Yair Geller, a 75-year-old Israeli businessman who lives in Turkey and runs an engineering company there. Turkish media said Iran wanted to kill Geller in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh a year ago. Fakhrizadeh was considered the key figure in Iran’s nuclear weapons effort.
Turkish news reports said the eight-man team in Turkey assembled to kill Geller was led by Iranian agent Yasin Taher-Imamkandi, who is in Iran and was not arrested. The one Iranian arrested in Turkey was named as Saleh Mushtaq-Biguz, 44.
Turkey has arrested a number of Iranians and Turks in recent years for plotting to kidnap or assassinate Iranian dissidents. This has come amid growing criticism from rights groups and the European Union. Perhaps more importantly, it has come as Turkish relations with the Islamic Republic have soured.
Turkey has not been consistent in foiling Iranian schemes. In 2021, Turkey released Mohammad-Reza Naserzadeh, whom its intelligence service had arrested in connection with the killing of Masoud Molavi-Vardanjani, a former Iranian defense official, in Istanbul in 2019. Turkey’s Daily Sabah alleged that Naserzadeh, whom it said was working in Iran’s Istanbul consulate, had forged travel documents for Ali Esfanjani, the alleged “mastermind” of the killing.
The Turkish government’s official TRT channel reported in 2020 that the Turkish intelligence service MIT had unearthed a network tied to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry working to abduct or assassinate Iranian dissidents, and that the network had lured Habib Chaab, an Arab separatist leader, to Turkey, and then rendered him to Iran, where he is currently on trial.
Last November, Cyprus charged three Pakistanis, an Azerbaijani and two others with plotting to kill Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, who lives on Cyprus.
