A video has emerged purporting to show artillery, hidden among medical supplies, in a convoy of trucks said to be operated by Turkish intelligence
A video has emerged purporting to show artillery, hidden among medical supplies, in a convoy of trucks said to be operated by Turkish intelligence officers.
Turkish pro-opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet – The Republic – alleges the trucks were heading for Syria, and the hands of rebel fighters. Turkey denies arming extremists in Syria.
It’s a potentially embarrassing release for the Ankara government, a week ahead of general elections in Turkey.
Four prosecutors thought to have stopped the convoy have been detained, along with 34 officials accompanying the trucks, some of whom are said to have shot the video.
They are believed to face charges of treason and espionage, while the affair has invoked state secrecy and the media has reportedly been censored.
The Turkish government claims the search of the trucks at the border with civil war-torn Syria, was carried out by supporters of anti-government cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is based in the US.
Syria is in the throes of a four-year civil war. The video’s release comes as rebels in the country are advancing in Idlib, a province bordering Turkey.