The unknown details of the ‘Zarrab case’

There are signs that the jailed Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab, currently behind bars in New York, will be unable to attend his hearing on Nov. 27. 

It is claimed that in the past one and a half month, Zarrab and his lawyers have been negotiating with a court and has been taken out of prison and sent to the Federal Detention Center, which is under the control of prosecutors and intelligence.

It was never convincing that Zarrab, known worldwide for breaching the U.S.’s Iran sanctions and getting arrested in Turkey in the Dec. 17- 25, 2013 corruption and bribery operations, came to the U.S. to take his child on a trip. 

His arrival in the U.S. was thought to be the result of a negotiation. It is claimed that he negotiated to become a confessor in return for a permission that will allow him to keep his assets outside Turkey and continue commercial activity.

If he becomes a confessor, the story will widen more and a new indictment will be written.

“It smells fishy,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said about it. 

On Sept. 14, for the daily Hürriyet, I had written about the hidden side of “the operation of the CIA in which they smuggled a Turkish intelligence officer for Zarrab.”

Former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) member Enver Altaylı was arrested and accused of smuggling former MİT member Mehmet Barıner out of the country.

Barıner, who was discharged from MİT after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt in Turkey on accusations of being a Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) suspect, had a very important feature.

Barıner was appointed to follow Zarrab in MİT, which he entered in 2012.

After being smuggled abroad, it was said he would be used as live witness in the Zarrab case against Turkey. He was caught in an operation with the collaboration of MİT, gendarmerie forces and police.

In the indictment, there are also letters written by Zarrab to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“The economic jihad of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a religious duty in order to prevent our country from drowning economically,” Zarrab had said.                 

US, FETÖ and Germany triangle 

On the other side of the Zarrab case, there is FETÖ.

The U.S, after failing to overthrow Erdoğan through FETÖ on Dec. 17 - 25, 2013, stepped into the issue with the Zarrab case. 

We see that the U.S. has been following Zarrab since 2007, and pushed the button for the official process to start between 2010 and 2015.

The money traffic and the gold trade of Zarrab through Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan as well as the United Arab Emirates have been traced.

Since 2008, the U.S. has been tracing closely many politicians and bureaucrats from Turkey under the “Zarrab case.”

And when Erdoğan was the subject, we see the German intelligence getting involved.

This is the FETÖ, U.S. and Germany “triangle.” Do we not see the same picture also in the July 15 coup attempt, too?

What will Turkey do?

There are two options for Turkey.

We can do what Energy Minister Berat Albayrak does and lessen the level of importance of the case by describing the situation as a businessman who breached the embargo and who is within a money and gold traffic. 

Or we can place another important case against it, causing the Zarrab case to be put aside.

Zarrab is not the endpoint, but rather an interval in the case. Through Zarrab, Erdoğan is being targeted.