Iranian opposition members keep leaving the country – including to Turkey. But are you safe there? A recent agent story raises questions.
Van – Mehrdad Abdarbashi almost involuntarily returned to his native Iran. At the end of September 2021, Iranian agents tried to poison the refugee former Iranian helicopter pilot in Turkey and to drag him back to Iran. Turkish security forces prevented that. Abdarbashi is grateful for this, but fears for his life. “I am not safe in any city in Turkey,” he told the Arab television station Al Jazeera.
Mehrdad Abdarbashi was the captain of an attack helicopter in the Iranian army, but wanted to retire from the military in 2015. He was forbidden to do so, and his passport was confiscated to prevent travel. He stayed until 2018 when he was ordered to go to Syria. He refused because he did not want to participate in a proxy war, he told Al Jazeera. Therefore he decided to flee to Turkey.
Iranian dissident in Turkey: constant fear of Iranian agents
In the city of Van in the east of the country, Abdarbashi applied for asylum and asked the Turkish authorities to be taken to another city. He is not safe in the city, which is just over 80 kilometers from the Iranian border. However, this was not possible due to the corona lockdown, he explains. However, the Turkish police were ready to protect him.
Abdarbashi’s security concerns turned out to be justified: After a while, he was contacted by an employee of the Turkish immigration authorities who was working there as a translator. He asked Abdarbashi to go out to eat with him. The police suspected an ambush and advised against the meeting.
Turkish police prevent kidnapping by Iranian agents
A woman then contacted Mehrdad Abdarbashi via the Internet. The Turkish police saw this as an opportunity to find out whether they worked for the Iranian secret service. The police gave Abdarbashi a device that they could use to monitor the woman’s smartphone. The strategy worked: the woman telephoned the immigration officer several times, reports Al Jazeera, who had recordings. This urged them to approach Abdarbashi and gain his trust. In return, she was to receive $ 10,000. She then tried to persuade Abdarbashi to go out of town. He refused – on the advice of the police. The officers also warned him not to have dinner with her because she could stun and kidnap him.
Nevertheless, Mehrdad Abdarbashi invited the woman to dinner at his home on September 24, 2021. However, security forces followed the later kidnappers. At 9 p.m. the time had come and the woman arrived at Abdarbashi with two other men in tow. Heavily armed security forces then arrested them, Al Jazeera reports. On October 4, 2021, those arrested had to answer in court for espionage and conspiracy.
Mehrdad Abdarbashi expects, however, that it will not be the only attempt by the Iranian secret services to kidnap or attack him. “This time they will not kidnap me, they will kill me,” he told Al Jazeera.
Iranian dissidents in Turkey: There are repeated abductions and attacks
In fact, Abdarbashi is not an isolated case. In October 2020, Babib Chaab, leader of an Iranian separatist group, visited a woman in Istanbul. There he is said to have been dragged into a delivery truck and driven 2,000 kilometers to the Iranian border, report Turkish authorities. He eventually appeared on Iranian television and made a confession.
In February 2021, Turkish security forces arrested an employee of the Iranian consulate in Istanbul who allegedly shot the Iranian scientist Masoud Molavi. However, Iran denies any responsibility.
Geopolitical developments decide about Iranians: inside Turkey
The geopolitical events in the region decide the fate of the Iranian dissidents: inside Turkey, said Middle East expert Galip Dalay from the University of Oxford Al Jazeera. In the war in Syria, the two states initially faced each other before cooperating with Russia in the Astana process to end the war. In the war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, however, both nations faced each other. At the moment, however, the signs are more towards cooperation: the Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu from the cabinet of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian colleague Ahmad Vahidi recently agreed to work together to secure the border, counter terrorism and fight against drug and human trafficking. For dissidents who fled, such as Mehrdad Abdarbashi, this is not good news. (Max Schäfer)
