Capture In Russia Of Turkish “Spies”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 11

Capture In Russia Of Turkish “Spies”

(Rec. 10 p.m.) MOSCOW, February 15. The Soviet State security service has announced the capture of four Turks alleged to be Americantrained spies and the killing of a fifth during an exchange of fire with guards near the Turkish-Soviet frontier, the Soviet news agency, Tass, reported today. After interrogation, the four arrested will be Charged with espionage against the Soviet Union, Tass said, quoting an official statement from the State Security Committee.

“Weapons, cameras, binoculars, compasses and other spy equipment as well as large sums of Soviet money were taken from those arrested,” the statements said. Carefully concealed written instructions relating to information to be collected, as well as forged Soviet passports with which they were to operate oil Soviet territory were found in their possession, it added. The spies had been selected and recruited by members of the Turkish intelligence and brought to a suburb of Ankara where they were trained in pairs under the guidance of American instructors.

Tass said groups of spies were captured and arrested in the Georgian and Armenian Socialist Soviet Republics and one spy was killed in an exchange of fire with frontier guards on the Ajax sector of the Turkish-Soviet frontier. “Carefully-concealed written instructions relating to the information to be collected as well as forged Soviet passports made out in the name of Bairamov Mulazin Kurbanovich and Sabriev Isa Kamalovich, with which they were to operate on within Soviet territory, were found on KumelGil Riza Aidyn Ogly and Isa Kamil Ogly," the official statement said.

“The investigation established that two of the men have for a long time been agents of the Turkish gendarmerie, while another denounced Turkish citizens who expressed their indignation at the activities of Americans in their country. A fourth is known as a smuggler. “The spies were selected and recruited by members of the Karakesen and Kars section of the Turkish intelligence service, Ali Bey and Nizameddin Bey, and were brought to a suburb of Ankara where, at different times, they underwent special training in pairs under the guidance of American instructors who appeared under fictious names,” it said. The statement said that American intelligence agents instructed the men in methods of carrying out subversive activities in the Soviet Union and in handling firearms for use against “Soviet citizens who might try to prevent them carrying out their espionage activtites.” It said that the men were sent into the Soviet Union “to collect espionage information dealing with important industrial centres, the location of troops, and military airfields and also to get hold, by any means, of genuine Soviet passports.” They were also to recruit “morally unreliable Soviet citizens” for subversive work.