Turkey nabs bombing suspect amid Idlib effort – is it a coincidence?
Turkey’s capture of the alleged mastermind of the 2013 Reyhanli bombing — the biggest Syria-related injury it has suffered — had intriguing timing, coinciding with Ankara’s efforts to prevent a regime offensive on Idlib.
While moving military reinforcements to the Syrian border amid lingering tensions over Idlib, Turkey conducted an intriguing intelligence operation. On Sept. 12, Ankara announced that Yusuf Nazik, the accused mastermind of a 2013 twin car bombing in Reyhanli that claimed 53 lives, had been captured in the Syrian province of Latakia and brought to Turkey by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
Public broadcaster TRT initially claimed that Nazik, a Turkish national, had been captured in a joint operation with Syrian intelligence. The channel removed the claim from its ensuing bulletins, while the state-run Anatolia news agency emphasized that the operation was accomplished entirely with national resources.
In a confession video released to the media, Nazik said he received the order for the Reyhanli attack from the Syrian intelligence service, known as the mukhabarat. He said he then brought the explosives from Syria and had them planted in the vehicles. He made the following appeal: “I’m calling on my fellows in Syria to turn back while they still can. The Turkish state, our own state, will take care of us. I'm calling also on the Syrian state: The Turkish state is a great state and it will certainly bring you to account.”
During the 2014 trial over the Reyhanli attack, Nazik was indicted in absentia along with eight other suspects. In the final hearing on Feb. 23, nine out of 33 defendants were sentenced to life in prison, while 13 others got jail terms of up to 15 years. Yet, questions over the attack, stirred by some testimonies during the trial, lingered after the convictions. Who was really behind the carnage? And why did the security forces fail to prevent the attack when they had advance intelligence?
