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DID VLADIMIR PUTIN’S spies save Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s life in the recent attempted coup? The theory first surfaced when Iran’s official Fars News Agency claimed that Russian security services tipped off their Turkish counterparts after picking up “highly sensitive army exchanges and encoded radio messages showing that the Turkish army was readying to stage a coup.” The electronic intelligence was gathered, according to the report, by a Russian listening station at Hmeymim Airport near Latakia, Syria, operated by the Sixth Directorate of GRU military intelligence. The Russians reportedly overheard the Turkish military “discussing plans to dispatch several army helicopters to the hotel [in the resort of Marmaris] where Erdogan was staying to arrest or kill him.”
FLAGGING DEMOCRACY: Thousands of Turks responded to Erdogan’s call to take to the streets to reject the attempted coup.
ALEXANDRA HOWLAND FOR NEWSWEEK