Second diplomat expected to take on top position at MİT

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Ambassador to Brussels İsmail Hakkı Musa. AA photo

Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) is preparing to bring aboard another diplomat to its ranks, with Turkish Ambassador to Brussels İsmail Hakkı Musa expected to be appointed as deputy undersecretary of the organization. 

Musa will be the second Foreign Ministry official to assume responsibility at the top administration of the agency after Abdurrahman Bilgiç, another diplomat, was appointed last year as MİT’s deputy undersecretary.

Official sources confirmed the possibility of Musa’s appointment to the Hürriyet Daily News but added that the decision was not yet officially final.

Bilgiç had been summoned to Turkey from Tokyo where he was serving as ambassador. The decision about Bilgiç was made at a time when several other new appointments were made at MİT last October in what was interpreted as a reorganization within the spy agency. Bilgiç’s appointment was also seen as evidence of a MİT decision to focus more on external intelligence.

Born in 1960, Musa graduated from the Department of Law and Economy of France’s Nancy University. He entered the foreign service in 1988 and worked mostly on relations with Europe apart from an appointment to embassy in Algeria during the early stage of his career.

After working in the consulate at Lyon, he served as deputy mission head in Turkey’s representation to the European Union in the first half of the 2000s. Later, he worked as consul general in Kazan, Russia, as well as Lyon.

Musa had served as Turkey’s ambassador to Brussels since last November.