The report, published by the Haaretz daily on Saturday, said Turkey has been conducting intensive negotiations with Syria in order to secure the intelligence officers’ release and added that the Turks’ release is conditional upon the extradition of officers and soldiers that defected from the Syrian army to join the opposition who are currently in Turkey.
Furthermore, Haaretz claimed that Syria also asked for the continuation of negotiations for Turkey to cut the transfer of weapons and the passage of soldiers from the rebels’ Free Syrian Army through its territory. It also demanded that Iran sponsor the negotiations over the release of the Turkish officers.
According to the report, Turkey rejected the Syrian demands, which the report says is a sign Ankara could further harden its stance on Syria.
“Syria, on the other hand, recently published ‘confessions’ that it allegedly gathered from the Turkish officers that they were trained by Israel’s Mossad, and were given instructions to carry out bombings to undermine the country’s security. According to the Syrians, one of the Turkish officers said Mossad also trains soldiers from the Free Syrian Army, and that Mossad agents came to Jordan in order to train al-Qaeda officials to send to Syria to carry out attacks,” Haaretz said. According to Haaretz, Turkey also mediated several weeks ago between the Free Syrian Army and Iran to secure the release of several Iranian citizens who were captured by Syrian rebels.
The Israeli report comes days after it was revealed in Turkey that at least one National Intelligence Organization (MİT) agent was involved in the abduction of two Syrian defectors, Mustafa Kassum and Col. Hussein Harmush, and their transfer to Syrian authorities. The state prosecutor in the southern province of Adana has formally charged the MİT agent and four other individuals for their alleged role in the handing over of Harmush and Kassum to Syrian security forces. Harmush fled to Turkey last June but returned to Syria under unclear circumstances in September. In late September, the colonel “confessed” to crimes against the Syrian government in a tape aired on Syrian national television. Earlier reports said the MİT officer and four other suspects had accepted a bribe of $100,000 from Syrian intelligence services to repatriate Harmush, while subsequent reports suggested the local MİT chief, and even MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, knew about the case. The Radikal daily reported on Monday that some of the MİT officials were brought to MİT headquarters in Ankara to escape an arrest warrant issued by the Adana prosecutors. The daily claimed that the MİT personnel were waiting until proposed legislative amendments -- which require prosecutors to receive permission from the prime minister when taking legal action against or questioning intelligence official -- were accepted by President Abdullah Gül.
On Jan. 30, the Syrian League for Human Rights reported that the regime’s security forces had executed Harmush.
