Turkish army denounces ‘illegal copying’ of state secrets

Mesut Hasan Benli ANKARA

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. AA Photo

The Turkish General Staff has filed a criminal complaint over the permitting of top secret information to be passed to unauthorized people during an investigation into an alleged assassination attempt against Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.

The General Staff issued its denunciation at the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and the Court of Appeals, against the alleged handing over of secret information during a search in the “cosmic room” where the military’s state secret information is held.

The investigation into an alleged assassination attempt targeting Arınç was closed with a nonsuit decision regarding 38 people on March 12, after a probe lasting five years.

The nonsuit decision stated that it was not known who had made the copies of a hard disk as big as 1.5 terabytes containing information gathered from the “cosmic room,” as no protocol about the process was found.

The General Staff’s complaint did not give the names of who was to be investigated, but cited those who “allowed the unlawful transmitting of information and documents belonging to the General Staff to unauthorized people through a copy handed to the public prosecution office.”

The General Staff had announced in a written statement on March 13 that judicial means would be taken against the individuals responsible.
On March 19, the HSYK granted permission for a legal review of the 2010 raid on the “cosmic room.”