Mossad director meets Turkish intelligence chief

Pardo meets with Turkish counterpart in Ankara to discuss Syria, Iran, intelligence cooperation between Israel, Turkey.

By EVA TAPIERO
Mossad director Tamir Pardo 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Mossad director Tamir Pardo 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Mossad director Tamir Pardo met secretly with the Turkish National Intelligence Organization's head, Hakan Fidan, this week in Ankara and discussed matters related to Syria and Iran, the Istanbul-based newspaper Hürriyet reported on Wednesday.
Pardo also asked for an appointment to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but he did not receive a reply, Hürriyet said.
Fidan and Pardo shared information about the situation in Syria as well as the influence of Iran in the country. It was further reported that sources claimed to have information that Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Syrian intelligence are working against Turkey. The two men also discussed intelligence sharing between their countries.
Yossi Melman, an intelligence analyst for TheTower website and The Jerusalem Post's sister paper Sof Hashavua, said, "The meeting signifies the strong will of the countries to open a new chapter in their special relations in the fields of defense and security."
Lucas Farioli, a Spanish freelance journalist based in Istanbul for the past four years, said this information "has largely been ignored in the context of the Turkish media, which is busy finding its position regarding clashes between police and protesters at Gezi Park, Istanbul."
He explained that supporters of Erdogan's AKP (Justice and Development Party) continue to expect Turkey to remain cold in its relations with Israel due to the Mavi Marmara incident three years ago.
"Today, as a journalist specialized in Turkish politics, I understand how the Palestinian question has been used by the Turkish authorities to boost emotions and conquer the polls. The truth is both commercial and state relations between the two countries have been quite dynamic despite the crisis of the flotilla," Farioli said.
The journalist argued that common interests over Syria and Iran have resulted in cooperation between the countries' intelligence services. "What surprises me is how passive the conservative segment of the [Turkish] population, who are AKP voters and close to their religious values, conveniently chose to look somewhere else when their government works with those [Israel] that until recent months were depicted at all levels as enemies."