The Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan left it to his communications chief to highlight Türkiye’s role in the large prisoner exchange between Russia, Germany, the USA, and other countries. The communications chief posted on X, claiming that Türkiye was a “diplomatic heavyweight.” He stated that the Turkish intelligence agency MIT had opened communication channels “for this historic operation” and mediated between powers that were hostile to each other. In doing so, Türkiye had proven itself to be a “reliable partner.”
According to the Presidential Office, MIT was significantly involved in the negotiations and the implementation of the exchange from the very beginning. The White House in Washington and the Kremlin spokesperson confirmed this. The Russian intelligence agency FSB released television footage of the prisoner handover in Ankara. On board the American plane were Russians who had been sentenced to long prison terms in the USA for cyber crimes, smuggling Western technology, and financial offenses, as well as the so-called Tiergarten murderer Vadim Krasikov, a secret service agent sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany.
One of those released by the US, Vladislav Klyushin, was arrested in Switzerland in 2021 at the request of the USA and later extradited to the United States. A Russian couple, who had been exposed as “illegals” (spies living under false names), was transferred from Slovenia, another “illegal” from Norway, and a spy from Poland.
MIT was the first to announce the names of those released, even before the government and American President Joe Biden provided details of the prisoner exchange. Simultaneously, state television showed images of the seven planes that had brought the released individuals to Ankara. Their faces were blurred, apparently to avoid upstaging the welcome images at Cologne/Bonn Airport and Joint Base Andrews.
For Erdogan, the scenes at Ankara Airport would have provided ample opportunity to present himself as a reliable NATO partner. However, this did not seem to be his intention. When the Presidential Office in Ankara announced that Erdogan had spoken with US President on the phone, the focus was on the Middle East conflict. According to the statement, Erdogan told Biden that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had shown he did not want peace. The Turkish president was not quoted on the prisoner exchange at all. It was only mentioned that Biden thanked Erdogan for his support in the operation. Instead, Erdogan demonstratively emphasized other priorities. While the images of the prisoner exchange flashed across screens, the Presidential Office announced that Erdogan had spoken with the Pope, expressing his moral outrage over the queer scene from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
Erdogan then declared a national day of mourning for the killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and sent his foreign minister and intelligence chief to the funeral in Doha. To further emphasize this, Turkish authorities blocked the social network Instagram, leaking that this was a punishment for Instagram’s removal of posts celebrating Haniyeh as a freedom fighter. Meanwhile, Israel summoned the Turkish chargé d’affaires because the embassy in Tel Aviv had flown the flag at half-mast for Haniyeh.
Even in MIT’s statement, Erdogan’s role in the prisoner exchange was downplayed. It merely stated that under his leadership, Türkiye was committed to peace and stability in the world. This does not mean that the prisoner exchange on Turkish soil was not an important diplomatic success for Ankara. The scenes present the country in the role it has long claimed for itself and that the president also likes to emphasize: as a bridge between Russia and the West. This allows Ankara once again to demonstrate that its geostrategic importance has grown since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
All publishing rights and copyrights reserved to MENA Research Center.
