Istanbul has been a hub of spies for years, so negotiators are right to watch their food during peace talks
In 2021 alone, Turkish intelligence discovered a Russian assassination plot, an Iranian kidnap attempt, and an Israeli spying operation. And that’s only what’s been made public
Ukraine’s negotiators have been advised not to eat or drink anything, or touch any surface, during talks with Russian counterparts in Istanbul.
The guidance is in light of the alleged poisoning of Roman Abramovich at an earlier session. But any visiting dignitary would be well advised to watch their back in a city that has earned a reputation as one of the world’s capitals of spycraft.
Recent incidents have reinforced this reputation. In 2021, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization announced it had uncovered a series of plots, including Russian spies planning an assassination, an Iranian operation to kidnap a defector, and an Israeli network gathering intelligence on Palestinian students. Other plots have not been foiled, such as the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in 2018.
Professor Arne Kislenko of the University of Toronto, a specialist in the history of espionage, said: “I would be amazed if every intelligence agency that counts in the world doesn’t have some assets in Turkey.” The depiction of Istanbul as a city of secrets and chicanery can be laden with orientalist tropes, he said, as in the novels of Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming. But reality has often been as outlandish as fiction.
Reports of Istanbul’s status as a hub of espionage date back more than a millennium, said Kislenko. Scholarly accounts show it was a base for agents of the Habsburg Empire, rivals to the Ottoman Empire, in the 16th century. During the Second World War, the city became a melting pot for spies of rival powers who would conspire against each other during the day and drink together at night.
Istanbul’s attraction to spies is partly an accident of geography, said Dr. Ali Burak Daricili, a veteran of the Turkish intelligence services and now a professor of international relations at Bursa Technical University. As a bridge between Asia and Europe – and the largest city in a country that borders eight countries and is close to the Balkans, Middle East, Black Sea, and Caucuses – Istanbul is a natural “meeting place for espionage activities for many intelligence services”, he said, adding that a population of 15 million is also large and diverse enough to hide in.
Turkey’s neutrality in conflicts from the Second World War to Israel’s covert war with Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also makes it attractive terrain to foreign governments. “Turkey is equidistant from Russia and Ukraine. Both countries trust Turkey,” said Dr Daricili. “For this reason the Russian and Ukrainian delegations and their intelligence officers preferred to meet in Istanbul.”
“You had American, British, German, Russian intelligence people who were known to each other, hanging out at the same hotels”
Arne Kislenko, University of Toronto
Much of the city’s modern reputation derives from its role in Second World War, when it was flooded with agents from the warring parties and played host to a “Nazi-British intelligence war”. This gave rise to countless famous stories, such as the “Cicero affair”, codenamed for the Albanian butler of British ambassador Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, who sold secrets to Germany but was paid in counterfeit notes. “Cicero” was able to spirit documents away while the ambassador was in the bath, the Foreign Office later revealed.
Scarcely less striking was the case of Mariana Dumont, who was exposed as a German spy while working for British intelligence, having been blackmailed while working for a Soviet shipping company after leaking sensitive details to France about a dispute between the US and Germany over a strategically important ship. Istanbul often allowed foreign agencies to claim defectors during wartime, such as Gestapo captain Wilhelm Hendricks-Hamburger, who defected after reportedly being turned by a Jewish piano player in a nightclub.
Rival agents often kept close company. Kislenko said: “You had American, British, German, Russian intelligence people who were known to each other, hanging out at the same hotels.”
Dynamics changed after the Second World War. With Turkey joining the western alliance and gaining NATO membership in 1952, it became an important base of operations for the US during the Cold War. The country became a listening post to monitor Soviet communications, and a base for surveillance aircraft, including a plane that was shot down over Russia in 1960.
American ambitions went further with an effort to expand the war on drugs into Turkey as part of the fight against Communism. Under the direction of Harry J Anslinger, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics devoted resources to a crackdown on the opium routes through Turkey. Ryan Gingeras, professor at the US Navy’s Naval Postgraduate School, wrote in his research paper ‘Istanbul Confidential’: “Anslinger personally equated the use of illicit drugs with personal susceptibility to communist propaganda.” Gingeras also found evidence the US used violent criminals to sabotage leftist groups.
While the USSR was limited in its ability to operate inside a NATO state, it retained assets such as British agent Kim Philby, who was posted to Istanbul in 1947. He was able to protect other Russian spies and blow the cover of Western agents such as British crime writer John Le Carré, who worked for both MI5 and MI6.
More recently, Istanbul and Turkey have become staging grounds for proxy battles of the Middle East, such as Israel’s hostilities with regional foes and overspill from the war in Syria. Dr. Daricili suggested it has also been a base for Israeli sabotage operations against Iran.
As to what Turkey gains from hosting such activities, Kislenko suggested it has been able to develop relations with many of the parties operating within its borders, which earned it NATO membership and could yet yield access to the EU. There might also be financial incentives. Kislenko said: “There are accounts of Turkish officials trying to get their cut as a reward for information and playing both sides.”
Not that lawbreaking is officially tolerated, Daricili emphasised. In the case of Khashoggi, he said: “Turkish intelligence investigated this case successfully, [presenting] all its evidence and audio recordings and solved the murder in all its details.” Dr Daricili believes the announcements of plots being uncovered in 2021 indicates a renewed commitment to counter-espionage.
Nonetheless, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators visiting Istanbul for talks would be wise to stay alert.
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