Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation revealed on Tuesday a historical document detailing the movements of the well-known British spy Thomas Edward Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia.
The document, dated 23 September 1929, was published in the Documents section under the Special Collection tab on the official website of Turkish intelligence, marking the 99th anniversary of the organisation’s founding.
The document is a memorandum prepared by the Directorate of the Turkish National Security Service and focuses on the activities of Lawrence, who operated in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq while using assumed identities.
The memorandum was sent to the General Staff Command as well as the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs. It also includes a photograph of Lawrence wearing a military uniform.
The document states: In the second paragraph, I present reliable and confirmed information received by the Masonic lodge in Cairo from Syria and Palestine. It has been established that Colonel Lawrence, the famous spy and one of the senior figures in British intelligence, travelled to Syria and Iraq after spending a period in Egypt two months earlier under the alias Sheikh Abdullah. He then suddenly arrived in Jerusalem in August 1929.
It further notes: He is currently in the city of Khartoum in Sudan. Testimonies from several trusted individuals have confirmed that during his stay in Jerusalem, Lawrence would sometimes frequent the area of Al Buraq Wall disguised as a Muslim religious scholar under the name Sheikh Abdullah, and at other times disguised as an American Jewish rabbi under the name Yakos Eskinazi. At various times, he was reported to have instilled poisonous ideas among Muslims and Jews in that area, which caused fear and paved the way for the ongoing fighting in Palestine.
