It turned out that the Greek citizen Andreas Soutzis, who was caught spying in the TRNC, often went to the Turkish side under the guise of a ‘peace activist’.
The police took action when Andreas Soutzis, who was staying at a hotel in the Mehmetçik Village in the Karpaz Peninsula region on 26 August in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), found the radio that he had forgotten in the hotel. Soutzis, who was found to be a spy, was detained and arrested while re-entering the TRNC on Saturday.
TOWED TURKISH UAVS
Searches in Soutzis’ car found the same radio that he had left at the hotel, many photographs, USB sticks, 9 TRNC maps and a voice recorder. It caught the attention of the police that the spy had marked two Turkish military zones on one of the maps. During his interrogation, the spy confessed that he had marked the military zones and took the photographs himself, and was brought before the judge. It is known that the Geçitkale military airbase, where Turkish SİHAs and UAVs are located, is located in the Karpaz region.
MEMBER OF THE SO-CLOSE PEACE GROUP
After the emergence of espionage, a Greek citizen named Andreas Soutzis, who was revealed to have participated in Turkish-Greek peace activities as a member of a so-called peace group called ‘United Cyprus’, was also tried for espionage in Famagusta. Soutzis was detained for 5 days for the continuation of the investigation.
DISCLOSED
According to the news in the Evening Newspaper, Sebahattin İsmail, former advisor to former TRNC President Rauf Denktaş, former chief of staff of the Prime Ministry, shared important information about the Greek spy on his Twitter account. According to İsmail’s posts, Soutzis spends most of his time in the TRNC. The so-called Peace activist, who was financed by the EU and the Greek Cypriot administration and served as the 5th Column, was in frequent contact with the federationist Greek militias. Noting that some newspapers in the TRNC also made headlines protecting the spy, İsmail published Soutzis’ poses with the Greek flag.
MEET WITH AKINCI
Sebahattin İsmail also included the pose of Soutzis with Asım Akansoy, the General Secretary of the Republican Turkish Party, the main opposition party of the TRNC, and the former Minister of Interior. The newspaper Yeni Volkan published in the TRNC also had the headline “Let Provocateur Andreas Be Arrested” about the agent on October 9, 2018, and announced to its readers that the Greek Cypriot agent had a photo taken in front of the Presidency after meeting with the then-TRNC President Mustafa Akıncı.
PANIC AIR IN THE GREEK SECTION
Following the arrest of Andreas Soutzis, Turkish lawyer Öncel Polili claimed that he did not know that Soutzis was caught by radios that are subject to permission in the TRNC, that the Greek Cypriot mobile phone lines do not work in the TRNC, that his client uses the radio to communicate with his friends and that he is subject to permission. Simultaneously with the statement, the Greek Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the United Nations to step in for the release of spy Soutzis. UN spokesperson Aleem Siddique made a statement that they are in contact with both the Greek and Turkish sides.