Turkish intel report reveals surveillance of Times reporter

Turkish intel report reveals surveillance of Times reporter

ANKARA
Turkish intel report reveals surveillance of Times reporter

Turkish intelligence has released a 90-year-old intelligence document revolving around a Times correspondent under surveillance, shedding light on an intriguing chapter of espionage from 1935.

According to the newly unveiled intelligence report published in the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) website, the preceding National Security Service (MAH) closely monitored the correspondent Walter Collins.

As per the report, Collins traveled back to Istanbul on Jan. 28, 1935, and subsequently contacted local journalist Bay Nurettin, engaging him as the Ankara correspondent for The Times and directing him to act as an intermediary between him and the organization.

The MAH also directed Nurettin to demonstrate the organization of the instructions he would receive from Collins, as well as the telegrams he would compose for him.

Collins instructed Nurettin to use pseudonyms, or code names, for key Turkish figures in his telegrams: The modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as Robertson, Türkiye’s second President İsmet İnönü as Smith and Fevzi Çakmak, former prime minister, as Brown. He also noted the person who would take over communications in his absence in the report and provided his address as Fındıklı-Exelsior Hotel, the site of the exchange of information.

This revelation highlights the covert operations and strategic intelligence measures undertaken by MAH during the early Republican era in Türkiye.

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