Intelligence services free of charge: FM

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says a high-level agreement was reached between Turkey and the United States in 2007 on intelligence services. AP photo

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says a high-level agreement was reached between Turkey and the United States in 2007 on intelligence services.

The United States is covering the cost of intelligence-sharing in Turkey’s fight against terror, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said over the weekend.

A high-level agreement was reached between the two countries in 2007, and the flow of intelligence has been uninterrupted and instantaneous ever since, said Davutoğlu.

“Turkey does not have any economic responsibilities in this support provided by the United States,” said Davutoğlu in response to a question submitted to Parliament by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Secretary-General İsmet Büyükataman.

“These capabilities from the United States’ own inventory assigned exclusively to the fight against the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] are significant, and the intelligence provided by the unmanned aerial vehicle’s are valuable to our fight,” said Davutoğlu.

Fight against terrorism

U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Francis J. Ricciardone said last May that the U.S. had incurred about $400 million in annual costs, or about $1 million a day, assisting Turkey in its fight against terrorism.
Real-time intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Turkey in order to supply critical information about terrorist movements to the Turkish military was formally agreed upon by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and then-U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.