Turkish intelligence mediated a major exchange operation that included the exchange of a total of 26 individuals in prisons of 7 different countries, namely the United States of America, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus.
According to Turkish security sources, the exchange operation that took place in the capital Ankara today, Thursday, included 26 prisoners who were transferred to Turkey on board 7 planes, including 2 from the United States of America and one each from Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Russia.
This operation entered history as the most comprehensive hostage exchange operation between the United States, Russia and Germany in recent years.
Turkish intelligence provided channels of dialogue for this historic process, brought the parties together in Turkey over the past month, and was able to effectively use intelligence diplomacy and follow up on mediation activities between the parties from the beginning of the negotiations until their end / according to security sou
rces /.
Among the important names included in the exchange process are the Wall Street Journal correspondent / Ivan Gershkovich / imprisoned in Russia, the US Marine / Paul Whelan /, the German citizen / Rico Krieger / imprisoned in Belarus, and the Russian dissident / Ilya Yashin/.
The security sources revealed that the management of this exchange process between 7 different countries took place in Ankara by Turkish intelligence from the beginning of the negotiation process until the last moment when the exchange operations were carried out.
Due to the large number of those included in the exchange process, all individuals were taken from the planes under the supervision of Turkish intelligence personnel and transferred to safe areas, and Turkish intelligence also supervised the movement of the planes to and from Turkey.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency