Opened cell

The background of the high -profile detentions of Russians in Turkey: preventing an armed performance or attack towards Russia?

On Thursday, October 8, as part of the joint operation of the anti -terrorist police department, Istanbul and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), six Russians were detained. According to the Turkish State Television and Radio Campan of TRT, operations carried out simultaneously to three addresses in Istanbul and two addresses in Antalya were aimed at the detention of persons who planned to carry out armed actions in Istanbul and obtaining information for the purposes of “political or military espionage”.

According to the source, during the searches, three pistols were seized (one of them with a silencer), shops for them and many cartridges. The fact that the incident was the air of the main state television channel means that the detention really happened, and they were preparing for it in advance.

It is still difficult to interpret this event due to the scarcity of available information. In Turkey, high-profile murders were repeatedly taken, the performers of which were the Russians-they mainly killed Chechen field commanders or politicians. Turkish public opinion and security officials connected these crimes with Russian special services. However, usually in such cases, killers quietly come to the country for several days, do their job and leave. Now six people in two cities at five addresses were supposedly involved-some very difficult and noticeable story.

It is possible that the latest detentions are an intentional attempt to complicate relations between Russia and Turkey. The main question is whether the operation under the control of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was conducted - or he did not give consent to her.

After the not too successful September trip to New York to the UN General Assembly (Erdogan could not meet with Joe Bayden and did not receive the desired support), the Turkish president met with Vladimir Putin “One on one” in Sochi on September 29.

Details of the meeting were not disclosed, although it was known that it was about the key moments of the Russian-Turkish relationship-the situation in the Syrian Idlib, in Crimea, about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, about the purchases of Turkey of Russian military equipment, including the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems, which the Americans are so harshly opposed. What two presidents agreed about, the public is unknown, but after the unsuccessful American tour of Erdogan, attempts to demonstrate rapprochement with Russia on strategic issues for Turkey and, possibly, promises, data behind closed doors, may not arrange certain circles of Ankara’s establishment.

Sergey Zhitkov, especially for "New"