Turkey detains Greek on spying accusations

Muhammad Zubair

3 years ago

Turkish media revealed over the weekend that Ampara worked in Turkey while masquerading as a businessman.
He was caught in the city of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria.
Turkish media said he compiled information about border security and transferred it to Greek intelligence.

Turkey arrested a Greek man on charges of spying on Sunday, a day after seizing him in an operation coordinated with its intelligence service, according to local police.

Mohamed Amar Ampara was caught in the city of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria.

The police department in Gaziantep said in a statement: “The agent, named M.A.A., was detained by the judicial authorities after he was discovered to have connections with the Greek National Intelligence Organization … compiled information about our country’s border security and transferred it to Greek intelligence.”

Turkish media revealed over the weekend that Ampara worked in Turkey while masquerading as a businessman.

In the interim, the Greek Foreign Ministry confirmed that the disappearance of Ampara was reported to the Greek Embassy in Ankara a few weeks ago.

The embassy had talked to Turkish officials many times about the problem, but they never responded, the statement said.

Turkey and Greece are NATO allies entangled in a variety of disagreements.

In recent weeks, tensions have increased, with Ankara accusing Athens of stationing military personnel on islands close to its maritime boundary.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would no longer attend bilateral meetings with Greek authorities.