MOSCOW, November 25 (AVN) - Turkey has violated an international gentlemen's agreement which prohibits announcement and comments on foreign trip of intelligence chiefs, the Military News Agency learned.
The visit of Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Vyacheslav Trubnikov was presented in Turkey as a sensation. At the same time, Russian intelligence spokesman Boris Labusov declined to comment on the visit even after Turkish press made public all issues allegedly discussed during Trubnikov's negotiations with his Turkish counterpart Shenkal Atasagun.
A source in other Russian secret services told the Agency the sensation was caused to Turkey's wish to improve its political image. In a time when Chechen guerrillas receive moral and financial support from Turkey, this country wanted once again to accuse Russia of giving shelter to Kurdish nationalists wanted there by police.
Russia refuted these accusation yet before the OSCE summit in Istanbul, when a group of Turkish reporters visited a Kurdish refugee camp near the central Russian city of Yaroslavl. They saw no military camps or terrorist bases there, only refugees who had escaped political prosecution.
According to the source, Ankara staged the publicity campaign as a response for President Boris Yeltsin's reproaches in support to Chechen guerrillas. Thus, claims that Trubnikov's visit aimed to "discuss Kurdish-Chechen exchange" become understandable, he said.