ANKARA

A man accused of conducting espionage activities against Türkiye was captured on the Syria-Lebanon border on Monday in a joint operation by Turkish and Syrian intelligence services after more than a decade as a fugitive, security sources said.

Onder Sigircikoglu, who had been on the run for 12 years, was detained during a coordinated operation between Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the Syrian Intelligence Service.

He was later handed over to judicial authorities coordinated by the Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office and the Ankara police department’s counterterrorism unit.

Sigircikoglu was sentenced in 2013 to 20 years in prison for kidnapping two commanders of the Free Syrian Army — Hussein Harmoush and Mustafa Kassum — in 2011 and turning them over to Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Harmoush later died in custody.

He escaped from an open prison in Türkiye’s Osmaniye province in 2014. Investigators later alleged that the terrorist organization FETO helped facilitate the escape by manipulating legal records and sentence calculations.

Security sources said Sigircikoglu later took refuge in Syria, where he was protected by Syrian regime intelligence and reportedly tasked with conducting intelligence activities against Türkiye.

He shared information about individuals working in favor of Türkiye and maintained contacts with figures linked to anti-Türkiye networks, including terrorist Yusuf Nazik, who was convicted over the 2013 Reyhanli bombings.

Nazik, who was captured in a separate operation by Turkish intelligence in 2018, later confirmed in his testimony that Sigircikoglu helped him escape from prison, according to the sources.

Turkish intelligence tracked Sigircikoglu for years through surveillance, cyber monitoring and intelligence analysis, mapping his movements across Syria, Lebanon and Russia.

Investigators determined he had hidden in Syria, later moved to Lebanon’s Jabal Mohsen area and then traveled to Russia’s Krasnodar region before returning to Lebanon via Egypt.

After receiving intelligence that he would attempt to re-enter Syria, Turkish and Syrian intelligence coordinated a covert operation along the border.

Sigircikoglu was detained as he attempted to cross between Lebanon and Syria and was subsequently transferred to Turkish judicial authorities, the sources said.

Writing by Seda Sevencan