In the second installment of the Agent 007 saga, Sean Connery’s James Bond battles perfidious Soviet and Bulgarian agents in Hagia Sophia, the Great Cistern and other eye-catching locations in Istanbul. Because of its attractive position straddling two continents and its status as a hinge country linking East and West, Turkey has been a favorite setting for novels and films about international intrigue. And there has always been some of that: from Istanbul’s nest of spies in World War I (including Mata Hari) to the plots of the Cold War. For example, the time of the Volkovs: the Soviet spy who, in 1945, offered to go over to the other side and whose information could have uncovered the British-Soviet double agent Kim Philby almost two decades in advance, but who ended up disappearing (the case served as inspiration for the novel The mole(by John le Carré, also made into a film).
In the days of the Iron Curtain, Austria, and to a certain extent Switzerland, were the preferred countries for exchanges of prisoners and spies discovered in the other bloc, given their neutrality. But the former joined the European Union in 1995 and the latter, under pressure from Western capitals, applied sanctions to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has earned it inclusion on a list of countries “not friendly” to Moscow. So there are not so many capitals that are trusted by Moscow, Washington and their respective allies. That is where Ankara has seen a goldmine.
“[EE UU] “We deeply appreciate Turkey for providing key logistical support that made this agreement possible,” US President Joe Biden said Thursday after the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War took place at Ankara airport: “We appreciate the Turkish government providing a location for the safe return of these individuals to the United States and Germany.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin with several prisoners released at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. In the background, journalist Pablo González.Kirill Zykov (via REUTERS)Spanish journalist Pablo González (third from right, walking down the stairs), along with several released prisoners, disembark from the plane in Moscow after the trip from Turkey.SERGEI ILYIN/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POO (EFE)Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with released prisoners and their families at Vnukovo International Airport. Spanish journalist Pablo Gonzalez, second from left.GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN (EFE)Several released prisoners disembark from the plane that brought them from Türkiye.SERGEI ILYIN/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POO (EFE)
The agreement had been brewing for some time thanks to the mediation of the National Intelligence Organization or MIT, the secret services of Turkey. In fact, already in December, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had acknowledged contacts with the US authorities to solve the case of Evan Gershkovich, correspondent in Moscow of The Wall Street Journal, sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial without fairness in which he was accused of espionage. “In this exchange, the director of MIT, Ibrahim Kalin, following the directives of the president [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan facilitated talks between his American and Russian counterparts in Istanbul and Ankara,” a senior Turkish security official told EL PAÍS on condition of anonymity: “Turkey has become a centre for exchanging hostages due to its ability to communicate with both the West and Russia.”
But how can a NATO member country almost since its foundation be considered an impartial mediator by Moscow? Precisely because, despite its membership in the Atlantic Alliance, it has been the only member that has refused to apply sanctions to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, although it has also supplied arms to kyiv. President Erdogan is appreciated by both the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, and by Putin on a personal level, which has allowed him to organize meetings between the two countries that, although they have not resulted in a truce, have led to the release of several hundred prisoners of war in successive exchanges, as well as guaranteeing a cessation of fighting in areas such as the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the establishment of the grain corridor.
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The Turkish president has surrounded himself with several people with a great capacity for global reach, such as Kalin himself, former presidential advisor on security matters and considered one of the brightest minds in his entourage, or the Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, head of the secret services between 2010 and 2023 and with a wide agenda of contacts, especially in the Middle East, both with emirs and ministers as well as armed groups.
Not in vain, MIT has mediated in negotiations for the release of Western hostages captured in Syria by jihadist organisations, including six Spanish journalists kidnapped by the Al Nusra Front and the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Turkey also cooperated with Qatar in negotiations for the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in its attack on Israel on 7 October.
And there was a precedent to Thursday’s exchange that served to give Turkey merit in Washington’s eyes. In April 2022, former US Marine Trevor Reed, imprisoned in Moscow accused of assaulting two police officers, was exchanged for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, sentenced in the US for cocaine trafficking. The exchange, which was preceded by multiple meetings at the MIT headquarters in Ankara, took place at Esenboga airport, which despite being the airport in the Turkish capital, has less traffic than other airports on the coast or in Istanbul and therefore offers greater discretion. Following the success of this mission, Ankara also hosted a meeting of the directors of the US CIA and the Russian FSB to reduce tensions when threats of the use of nuclear weapons were increasing at the end of 2022.
Joe Biden greets former US military officer Paul Whelan at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, USA.Nathan Howard (REUTERS)Alsu Kurmasheva, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, along with their family, pose for a photo after arriving at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.Eric Gay (AP/LaPresse)Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva’s daughters Bibi and Miriam Butorin and her husband Pavel Butorin rush to meet her upon her arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.Nathan Howard (REUTERS)Biden (right), accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris (left), and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, at Andrews Air Force Base.Kevin Mohatt (REUTERS)Ella Milman, mother of reporter Evan Gershkovich, hugs her son in front of fellow freed inmate Paul Whelan and his sister Elizabeth Whelan.Alex Brandon (AP/LaPresse)US Vice President Kamala Harris greets a released Wall Street Journal journalist at Andrews Air Force Base.Nathan Howard (REUTERS)Reporter Evan Gershkovich gets a hug from a colleague after landing at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.Manuel Balce Ceneta (AP/LaPresse)US President Joe Biden hugs reporter Alsu Kurmasheva after landing on the plane that brought them from Turkey.Alex Brandon (AP/LaPresse)
Policy of balances
“The fact that an exchange involving multiple individuals and multiple states is taking place now is a great success for Turkish intelligence, which has managed to gain the trust of the parties despite the polarisation of positions,” says security analyst Abdullah Agar, a former member of the Special Forces. “It is the result of Turkey’s policy of balancing, of its strategy of active impartiality.”
In reality, Turkey has never been entirely on either side, always seeking to swim between two waters (and hide its clothes) by taking advantage of its strategic position. There are plenty of examples: during the War of Independence, Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk accepted Soviet aid in order to fight against the Western imperialist powers, and then ally himself with them; or the conservative Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who brought Turkey into NATO, but in the last years of his mandate ended up asking the USSR for economic help; or the Turkish military elites who were trained in the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance, but, influenced by Eurasianist ideas, have ended up looking towards Russia and China… Erdogan is a disciple of this trend, although one who has further refined this calculated strategic ambiguity that allows that, although not everyone trusts him, no one dares to do without the Turkish ally.
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