During an official visit to Ankara on October 27, Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Heker and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and signed the relaunch of diplomatic relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara.
At the same time, away from the spotlight, the spies rabbi, Khan Fidan, from the Turkish intelligence service MIT, and David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad, signed a secret memorandum setting the framework for future intelligence sharing between the two countries. This is according to a publication by intelligenceonline.
According to the publication, the secret partnership contains eight sections. One concerns the presence of the Shin Bet in Turkey. This is to ensure the protection of the Israeli embassy and consulate and to increase cooperation in the areas of combating terrorism and countering espionage.
“From this it follows that Palestinian citizens living in Turkey may be subject to increased surveillance by the MIT. The Mossad, on the other hand, pledged never to deploy its bayonet unit, which is responsible for targeted assassinations, against Palestinians on Turkish soil,” according to the publication.
“Another central axis of the bilateral intelligence agreement is the surveillance of Iranian cells and networks in Turkey by the Mossad. These are agents supported by the Mossad’s rear bases in Zagreb, Croatia and Bern, Switzerland.”
The agreement also states that the IDF’s intelligence division will cooperate with Turkish military intelligence, mainly in the field of electronic intelligence (SIGINT). So according to the publication.
The publication adds a link to the warming of relations between Turkey and Israel – the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. According to the publication, “the president also emphasized the importance of strategic cooperation between his country, Turkey and Israel. Gantz went to Baku on October 3rd (before the visit to Turkey), accompanied by a delegation of senior officials from the Mossad and AMN.
“The delegation ended its trip with a discreet stopover in Ankara to meet with Piden of MIT and negotiate the final draft of this agreement.”