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Source: Washington – Bandar Aldoushi
One afternoon last month, a man working for Turkish intelligence walked into a Vienna police station and announced that he had surrendered and asked for protection. His confession was shocking, as the man revealed that he had received orders to shoot an Austrian Kurdish politician, which he did not want. He added that he had previously been forced to give false testimony to convict an employee of the United States Consulate in Istanbul, according to the American newspaper “The New York Times”.
The newspaper considered that the accusations of this man who identified himself as Viyaz Ozturk, if true, “provide a new perspective on the extent to which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ready to go in search of his enemies.” Ozturk’s confession, detailed in the police report seen by the New York Times, may raise doubts about the veracity of the conviction of Metin Topuz, who worked for the United States Department of State and the Drug Enforcement Administration in Istanbul. , and that he was sentenced last June to more than eight years in prison for helping an armed terrorist group.
Istanbul court ruled on Metin Topuz
The Topuz case is one of several cases against Americans and US government employees in Turkey, which US officials claim is unfounded and that they see as an attempt by Erdogan to exert his influence in his increasingly hostile relations with the United States.
The “New York Times” report added: “Erdogan’s growing tyranny over the past decade has been accompanied by an aggressive campaign against his opponents at home and abroad, which began when he took on the European Union and escalated. after the failed coup in 2016, which the president blamed on the United States and the clergyman. Fethullah Gulen lives there. “
Fethullah Gülen (Archives)
The report noted that the crackdown in Turkey led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of Erdogan’s political opponents, mostly based on flimsy or fabricated evidence. And abroad, Turkey has been involved in the forcible return of more than 100 Gulen supporters. French investigators also confirmed that Turkey went so far as to assassinate three Kurdish militants in Paris in 2013. Turks who opposed Erdogan living abroad received notifications through Interpol that arrest warrants were issued against them and were they complained of harassment and surveillance by Turkish agents.
The Austrian government had long been concerned about the influence of Turkish intelligence in Austria, and the Vyaz Ozturk case sounded the alarm in this context. “We are taking this matter very seriously,” Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nahammer told the New York Times on Tuesday, declining to comment on the details of the case as the investigation continues.
In turn, the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment, saying in an emailed statement that the case was so sensitive that it was “classified.” For his part, a senior government official familiar with the case, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, said that if a plot to attack an Austrian Kurdish politician was confirmed, “it would signal a new level of Turkish interference in Austria.” .
Karl Nha, Minister of the Interior of Austria
And last month, a special committee of the Austrian police concluded that Turkish intelligence had recruited instigators to help spark violent clashes during a Kurdish protest on a street in Vienna’s Favoriten district last June and gathered information on the protesters. At that time, Nahammer said, “Turkish espionage and interference in the exercise of democratic rights have no place in Austria.” The Interior Ministry also said that there are around 270,000 people of Turkish origin in Austria, and around a third of them are Kurdish. Suzanne Raab, the Austrian integration minister, was more blunt, saying: “Austria has become a target for Turkish espionage … Erdogan’s long arm reaches Vienna Favoriten.”
When Ozturk turned himself in on September 15, he told police that he had retired from a long-term job at the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, but was recently tasked with carrying out an attack on Yegul Perevan Aslan, a former Austrian “Green Party” legislator of Kurdish origin and a prominent critic. For Erdogan. He has since been arrested by Austrian prosecutors, who are now investigating him on charges of working for a foreign military intelligence service.
Aigol Berevan Aslan
Ozturk said that in early September 2017, he was asked to sign a witness statement against Topuz, in which he was threatened with going to prison if he did not. Ozturk added: “They put me by force as a witness, they put me a blank sheet of paper and I signed it … Otherwise, I would go to jail with Metin Topuz.” “In Turkey, they always do it this way,” he added.
Ozturk also said he had received orders to shoot Aslan when he was first contacted by the Turkish prosecutor in Istanbul in 2018. He was supposed to carry out the attack last March, but the lockdown prevented his trip to Vienna, he said. police. Ozturk, who has an Italian passport, said he was trapped in Rimini, Italy, where he ended up breaking his leg in an accident. He then said that last August, a man contacted him via WhatsApp and asked him to travel to Belgrade, Serbia, and meet an acquaintance at a Turkish cafe.
When asked by the police why he had given up, Öztürk said he did it to save himself. He continued: “I don’t like this kind of thing, I’m not a hit man.” Ozturk also identified other targets that had been handed to him in addition to the attack on Aslan. Peter Bills, editor of the online magazine ZackZack who was the first to publish news about Ozturk, said police told him he was one of those targeted and offered him protection.
Bills, who is also a former “Green Party” legislator, was a member of the Intelligence Oversight Committee and is a prominent and long-time critic of Erdogan, especially regarding his treatment of the Kurds.
Yeter Bells, editor of ZackZack online magazine
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