Plot

Ilyas Bazna works as a butler in the British Embassy in Turkey during World War II. After Bazna starts working as a German spy he experiences a series of unexpected events.

Cicero is the pseudonym of Ilyas Bazna, who was born in 1904 in Pristina. He was one of the most famous spies of World War II, and worked for Nazi Germany in 1943-44 while he was employed as valet to Sir Hugh Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen, British ambassador to neutral Turkey from 1939. He photographed secret documents from the embassy safe and turned the films over to the former German chancellor Franz von Papen, who was at that time the German ambassador in Ankara. For this service the Hitler government paid Cicero large sums of British money, most of it counterfeited in Germany. Despite the evident authenticity of the films, the Nazi officials in Berlin distrusted Cicero and are said to have disregarded his information. Who was Cicero? Was he a German spy or a spy working for Turkish Intelligence (MIT)? Was he after money or was he just a man seeking vengeance for the death of his parents?

Cicero

Ilyas Bazna, born in Prishtine in 1904, emigrated to Istanbul with his father and mother in 1918 after the Serbian occupation of Prishtine took place... Bazna, who did a portion of his military service in Cankaya Palace beside Atatürk, tried his luck at trade after his military discharge but to no success.

During the World War II era, he served as butler first of the ambassador of the Yugoslavian Kingdom, then of the undersecretary of the German Embassy. As he was caught reading the letters sent to the undersecretary while he was working for the German Embassy, he lost his job.

And, when the date was September 1943, he made his entrance to the British Embassy in Ankara to become the butler of the ambassador Hugge Knatchbull-Hugessen.

Thanks to his lovely voice and his passion for opera, Bazna started to get along well with the ambassador and he even came close enough to rub the ambassador's back whenever he took a bath while singing arias for him. The British Ambassador and the Intel agencies consider him as a naive, quiet butler who knew no English.

Yet Bazna was secretly blaming the British for the death of his father and the thought of earning more money got the better of him. With these thoughts in his mind, he decided to sell valuable British Intel and documents to the Germans. He contacted Ludwig Moyzisch, an important man within the German intelligence. He put forward a proposal of espionage provided they paid £20k per document he would deliver. The proposal submitted for Berlin's review and the confirmation for the espionage was received on October 29, 1943.

And now, Bazna could focus on his work. It would be hard to make a copy of the safe key while the ambassador was carrying it on his neck even when he took a shower. However, the Germans took care of this with a special technique. Thanks to a wax made by the Germans, Bazna managed to make a copy of the key while he was rubbing the ambassador's back during a bath. And he started taking photos of the documents in the safe whenever the ambassador took a bath.

The first trade-off between Franz von Papen, the German Ambassador, and Bazna took place in the garden of the German Embassy. Though it was the first time, the meeting was quite productive for both parties. While Bazna earned £20k, Papen acquired totally wonderful documents.

Now, the German Ambassador had the information on the military aids sent to the Soviet Union via Turkey, the British military maneuvers exercised in the Aegean using Turkish soil, and all the attempts of the British to draw Turkey to their side for the war.

However, even all those acquired Intel did not make the Germans to fully trust Bazna.

Ribbentrop, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany, thought that Bazna was a double-crossing British agent. Bazna who transmitted numerous documents including that of the plans related to the Normandy Landings failed to get the affections of Hitler, too. In 1943, Hitler, who was giving a speech in a conference room full of the Intel sent by Bazna, urged that the Allied Forces would attack from the direction of either the Balkans or Norway, not from the west.

In fact, Germans who did not believe the words of Bazna which warned the Germans against an Allied bombardment on Sofia were crashed and burned and suffered serious casualties. If Bazna's warnings had been taken into consideration, Germany would have suffered casualties in that scale, and even they might have had the chance to repel the Allied Forces. Bazna was now a trusted German agent.

Throughout the World War II, the Turkish policy was to stay away from the war. Nevertheless, like the Allied Forces, Germans, too, were pressing Turkey to join the war on their behalf. According to the Intel provided by Bazna, Turkey was helping the Allied Forces. Within these documents, there lied the contents and the outcomes of Cairo and Tehran conferences that were organized to convince Turkey to enter the war in line with the Allied Forces. Since they were transmitted by Bazna who was then a trusted agent, all allegations concerning the pressings that the Allies made on Turkey, the Aegean operations conducted by the British troops and the weapons provided to the Soviets through Turkey were all true.

The Germans, who now had zero doubts left in their minds about the authenticity of the documents provided to them, gave voice to their anger by sending a harsh diplomatic note to Turkey.

The note caused the Allied Forces to fall into a deep silence. The US, the Soviet, and even the British intelligence believed that there was a leak/rotten egg within the British embassy.

Bazna got even more nervous, feeling the circle tightening with each passing day after it was found out that Lena Kammp, who was a secretary in the German embassy, turned out to be an American spy. This is how Kapp spoke of Bazna, who was known as Cicero in the German embassy; "There is someone by the name of Cicero in the British embassy. When he calls our office, a wave of rush takes over the embassy and everyone with a lower rank is dismissed immediately."

Bazna fall in love Kammp and decided to help her and his down syndrome kid whom was sent to Bulgaria to Ankara according to T4 genocide program rules.

Bazna is in the game between English, German, Turkish secret services. But in which side he is in? What' s his main mission in Ankara in WW2?