The Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) has been organising a network of local spies to gather information from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and internal security forces throughout northeastern Syria, according to ANF.
ANF also writes that there are “special coordination centres” established in a range of Turkey’s border cities between Şırnak (Şirnex) and Antep (Dîlok) for MİT activities in northeastern Syria.
ANF has recently reported a series of video confessions by former spies, who told of illegal missions they were asked to carry out by names either directly or indirectly working for MİT.
The videos shared by ANF are reported to have been recorded after some spies were detained by the internal security forces of northeastern Syria.
Rami Sami Abdal, known to be the officer responsible for MİT in the region, states that he began to work for MİT when a he met with a man named Khalid Bedi Al Sofi, known by the nickname “Lulu”, who was working for a militant Jihadist group operating as Turkey’s proxy.
“The Ras al-Ayn (Serekaniye) man, Khalid Bedi Al Sofi, talked to me. Khalid Bedi Al Sofi is a member of the Hamza Brigade in Ras al-Ayn that operates as Turkey’s proxy,” he says.
“A relative of Khalid, named Enes, asked me to photograph the military zones and to take responsibility for collecting information from the region. They also asked me to assassinate people for money,” he adds
One of the names Abdal was asked to assassinate was an SDF fighter named Abdo, he states.
Abdal said since we was a drug addict, he found working as a spy an option to be able to afford the costs of the drugs. “Since they knew I was an addict, they dragged me into their trap and turned me into a spy.”
“We used to have contact with MIT through Rami,” Davud Baas Al Wadi, former responsible of MIT for Al-Darbasiyah (Dirbesiye) region, says talking more about his relations with Abdal and Abdal’s relations with the Turkish MIT.
“I was friends with Rami, who was a MIT agent. Rami talked to a man, named Khefash, who was in connection with the Turkish intelligence and gangs working with Turkey.”
Al Wadi said he was tasked with taking photos of the military institutions in the region.
“Since we did this job together, Rami paid me 150 thousand Syrian Liras,” he says, adding that it was Rami Abdal who was in contact with the Turkish intelligence, and photographing the institutions in the region.
Hüseyin Ali Yunus, a local from Raqqa, is another confessor, who stated that he and his brother was involved in information gathering activities for MIT.
“I met with the man, named Ümran Khalef Al Jasim, who was directing us, around five years ago. Ümran Al Jasim later fled to the regions in Syria that are under Turkey’s control,” he says.
This man named Jasim has later gone on to Turkey, according to Yunus and worked as a propaganda creator for the Free Syrian Army:
“He asked us to prepare brochures that had statements of support for the Free Syrian Army. And Ümran Jasim used to share these brochures in the social media accounts of the Free Syrian Army.”
“Ümran Khalef Al Jasim works for the group, named “Ukhuat Al Saarut”, which is a Turkey-aligned group,” his brother Hasan Ali Yunus says, sharing more information regarding Jasim’s relation to Turkish-backed militias.
“He used to visit us at home frequently. One day, he took my mobile phone, and took the photo of the brochures prepared by the Turkish intelligence on Raqqa,”
Ümran Jasim later on leaves for his military service and when comes back, he gives Ali Yunus a memory card.
“In the card, there were the photos from the groups like ISIS and Free Syrian Army,” Ali Yunus says. “Then he told me to send him these photos once he arrived in Turkey. After he went to Turkey, I sent these photos to him over Whatsapp.”
