Opposition questions Turkey’s links with CIA torture practices

Uğur Ergan ANKARA

CHP deputy Faruk Loğoğlu filed a parliamentary motion to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made up of nine questions.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has questioned Turkey’s possible role in the CIA’s torture program after the 9/11 attacks, after last week’s Senate report on the U.S. intelligence agency’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques.

CHP deputy Faruk Loğoğlu filed a parliamentary motion to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made up of nine questions, including whether CIA aircraft used Turkish air space and military bases, and whether the agency requested the establishment of a secret prison in Turkey.

A United States Senate’s committee report revealed that CIA officers used brutal interrogation techniques on hundreds of terror suspects, turning heads to the potential ally governments that may have cooperated in the program. 

As a result, Loğoğlu, who served as Turkey’s Washington ambassador between 2001 and 2006, the years after the 9/11 attacks when the CIA’s torture practices were at their peak, asked the Turkish government to explain the extent of its links with the program.

“Has Turkey ever been a partner in the CIA’s unlawful and secret actions in any way?” the motion asks. In addition to asking whether the CIA requested the establishment of a secret prison in Turkey, Loğoğlu also questioned whether CIA planes used Turkish airspace and airports, and whether they had made stops in Turkey for fuel or any other purposes.

“Is true that the Turkish authorities permitted secret CIA flights between 2002 and 2006? Is it true that the İncirlik military base in the southern province of Adana was used 24 times,” he asked.

Loğoğlu specifically recalled a 2007 European Parliament report that unveiled over 1,000 CIA-operated flights using European airspace from 2001 to 2005 and stated that temporary secret detention facilities “may have been located at U.S. military bases” in Europe.

As the European Parliament report accused Turkey of being one of the countries that had opened its airspace to these flights, Loğoğlu asked how Turkey had responded to the report at the time.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement on Dec. 11 to condemn the CIA’s reported inhumane and brutal practices.

“Torture and any other tyrannical, inhumane and humiliating acts cannot be approved under any circumstances. In addition to being a human and legal responsibility, the protection of human rights is also very important for the fight against terrorism,” the statement read.