(Hürriyet and Cumhürriyet Newspapers, 3 May 2015)
Derring-do alaturka style.
Turkish CIA agent Ruzi Nazar worked for the CIA in Turkey
for 11 years, beginning in 1959. A few days ago, he passed
away in Side, Antalya, at age 98. Nazar was known as the
planner and implementer of operations carried out against
the Soviet Union via Turkey during the Cold War. Nazar
fought on the Nazi side in World War II against the Soviets
and was offered the job of CIA agent by Archibald
Roosevelt, the son of Theodore Roosevelt.
Nazar was born in the city of Margilan in the Fergana Valley
of Uzbekistan in 1917. After studying economics and chemistry
at Taşkent University, he was drafted into the Soviet Army when
WW II broke out and sent to the front in the Ukraine. Anti-Soviet
feelings were high among the Ukrainian nationalists and they
sided with the occupying Nazis. Harboring a hatred for Stalin
and a yearning for an independent Turkistan, Nazar became
friendly with the Ukrainians and joined the Nazi Army.
When the war ended, Hitler's Military İntelligence chief Reinhard
Gehlen and his entire spy organization, covering middle and
eastern Europe, Russia, the Near East, Central Asia and the
Caucasus, passed to the American side as the CIA was beginning
to be formed. This is how Nazar ultimately became a CIA agent.
While in Washington, Nazar got to know Altemur Kılıç, who was
the Press Attache at the Turkish Embassy there. This association
led Nazar to gain the acquaintance of Alparslan Turkeş (later to
become one of the most famous and powerful Turkish nationalist
politicians), who was then serving at the Pentagon as a NATO
liason officer. In the book "CIA's Turkish Spy: Ruzi Nazar", Enver
Altaylı, who was a Sovietologist in the Turkish National Intelligence
Organization (MIT), writes in detail about how, years later, Nazar
saved Turkeş's life.
One of the periods of Nazar's life that remains opaque, though,
is his 11 year CIA tour of duty in Turkey. He came to Turkey in 1959,
just months before the coup in 1960, and left after the 1971 coup.
Nazar had a sizeable budget at his command while in Ankara and
focused on battling communism in civil society, the media,
universities and administration. Conversely, he bolstered the
rise of Islamic and nationalistic groups.
Nazar's info led to rescue.
The real hero of the story that the film "Argo" is based on, was
Nazar. After the Americans were taken hostage in Tehran in
1979 Nazar was assigned to the CIA crisis team handling the
matter. He went to Tehran for 11 days, gathered information
and returned to Washington. The subsequent rescue operation
was based on the information Nazar had collected and he was
awarded the CIA Medal of Honor for it.
Nazar's daughter Sylvia Nasar is the author of the book "A
Beautiful Mind", which was made into a movie starring
Russell Crowe.
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