The prosecution in Turkey announced that three secret agents who worked in the service of the Emirates were arrested in Istanbul • Despite a detailed initial notification, within hours the authorities retracted and asked to claim that there was no connection to the Emirates • According to reports, “it is difficult not to see attempts at political maneuvers” • Recently, tensions between the two countries have been noted
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An unusual security and political drama was recorded yesterday (Tuesday) in Turkey, after the Attorney General’s Office in Istanbul announced that the security forces arrested three suspects as secret agents who worked for the intelligence services of the United Arab Emirates. According to the original announcement, the three tried to collect personal information about senior officials in sensitive government bodies throughout the country, all through cell phones with Turkish phone numbers.
In an initially published message, it was claimed that intelligence officers from the Emirates obtained a telephone line from a GSM company operating in Turkey, and activated fake profiles to reveal biographical details about employees in critical positions in the country. Among the targets described were managers in the defense industries, a telephone line of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and official missions of several foreign countries.
It was also noted that the authorities located four people who removed a telephone line from Turkey and transferred it to the United Arab Emirates for the purpose of handing it over to an intelligence operation, while maintaining contact between them. During a special operation, three suspects were caught, while it was claimed that another suspect remained abroad – and an arrest warrant was issued against him.
But then the whole story got complicated. Regarding a report on the Middle East Eye website, a few hours after the official announcement, Turkish officials began to contact media outlets and request that the reports be removed, claiming that the information is incorrect. A short time later, the original message was deleted from the official X account of the lawsuit, and a new message was published in its place – without any mention of the connection to the United Arab Emirates.
In the evening, the prosecution published another clarification, this time seeking to completely delete the entire story about the alleged connection to the Emirates: “According to information received from our security sources regarding the espionage investigation, it was determined that the suspects have no connection to the United Arab Emirates,” it said. All this comes after the first announcement on the subject, which claimed a connection to the Emirates, was detailed and full of details. According to the report of the reporter in Turkey, “it is difficult not to see attempts at political maneuvers” in the case.
The surprising development comes against the backdrop of relatively calm relations between Ankara and Abu Dhabi, which re-stabilized in 2021 after years of regional and bilateral tensions. Since then the two countries have signed trade and investment agreements, and their leaders have visited each other in recent years.
Alongside the positive relations between the countries, in recent months tensions have risen again over the civil war in Sudan – in which the United Arab Emirates supports the rebel RSF forces, while the Sudanese army increases its cooperation with Turkey.