Yusuf Nazik, By Anadolu Agency
On September 12, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) announced that it had captured “Yusuf Nazik,” a suspect of the 2013 Reyhanlı bombing, in a “pinpoint operation” in the coastal Syrian city of Lattakia.
The MIT monitored Nazik in Lattakia than abducted him in a carefully planned operation and brought him back to Turkey. The Turkish intelligence said that it had not received intelligence or logistic support from any foreign state during the operation.
According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, Nazik confessed that he participated in the planning for the Reyhanli bombing upon orders from the Syrian intelligence, who had recruited him earlier. The suspect also gave out detailed information about “Mihrac Ural,” leader of the Syrian Resistance, during the integration.
“I am calling out to my friends in Syria, turn back while there still is time. The Turkish state will protect us. I am calling out to the state of Syria, Turkish state will make you pay eventually,” Nazik said in a video message released by the Anadolu Agency.
Syrian pro-government sources revealed that the Syrian Military Intelligence and the Russian intelligence thwarted an attempt by the MIT to assassinate Nazik, Mihrac Ural and a third Turkish-citizen named “Ondaz Severjek Uglo” last year. Turkey believe that the three men plotted and carried out the Reyhanlı bombing, in which 53 people were killed and many others were injured.
Turkey’s Justice Minister, Abdulhamit Gul, welcomed the MIT’s operation and vowed that Turkey will go after all “terror organizations.”
“It was a successful operation. Our state will come after every kind of terrorist group and [Turkey’s] independent judiciary will give out fair sentences, wherever the culprit may be,” Anadolu Agency quoted Gul as saying during his visit to central Konya province.
The Damascus government has not commented on the new Turkish claims yet. However, in 2013 Syria’s former Information Minister, Omran al-Zoubi, denied that Syria was behind the Reyhanlı bombing and held the Turkish government the responsibility for the violence in the region.
