Ferhat Ariaei, who is claimed to be an operative working for the Iranian intelligence organization Savama, was taken into custody at a rally organized by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in Diyarbakır on Sept. 1, marking World Peace Day, according to a story which appeared in the Bugün daily on Thursday.

In the course of their investigation, police discovered Ariaei had frequently travelled to Turkey in the recent past, contacting PKK terrorists and high-level members of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the terrorist PKK.

When stopped by the police, Ariaei presented himself as a businessman working in the marble trade and said he couldn't speak Turkish. But during the interrogation, it turned out that he could speak both Turkish and Kurdish fluently. Maintaining that his grandfather was from Diyarbakır, he told the police he frequently came to the city. When taken into custody, Ariaei had on his person a military identity card of the Revolutionary Guard, eight SIM cards, two cell phones and a USB stick.

Iran seems recently to have stepped up efforts to gather intelligence in Turkey through its operatives and members of the terrorist PKK. In a recent news piece in the Turkish press, Iran, which harshly criticizes Turkey's policy towards the Syrian regime, was claimed to have sent to Turkey nearly 100 operatives in an effort to obtain confidential military information, information about the Syrian dissidents in Turkey and information against the Turkish government. Iranians have also been videotaped talking to PKK terrorists.

In an operation conducted recently, Turkish security forces, following up on an investigation in which two Iranian operatives were arrested last year, detained nine Turkish citizens on Tuesday in the province of Iğdır who were accused of providing information to Iranian intelligence officers. Seven of these people have been arrested.

Having managed to retrieve a deleted video on a camera used by the two Iranian agents, the police also came upon footage in which Iranian agents are seen trying to get detailed information from two female PKK terrorists about the PKK and various state institutions in Turkey. During the meeting, the terrorists are also seen telling Iranian secret agents that they took eight Turkish soldiers captive at their attack against the Dağlıca military post.

The police have discovered that Iranian secret agents wanted to get, in exchange for money, information about some state institutions and important persons in Çaldıran, a town in Van province, from Turkish informants. Timur A, one of those arrested, has told police that intelligence units of both Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military have been collecting information in Turkey's eastern region. Iranian secret agents also wanted to get information on military units, the governorate and some private companies in the province of Iğdır, and information about Aralık, which is a town in the province.