Main opposition accuses gov’t of carrying out illegal intelligence activity

ANKARA

The government is carrying out intelligence activities via illegal and false organizations, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Bülent Tezcan has stated, showing a court document requesting information from an organization called the “Presidential National Security Unit.”

“There is actually no such organization. Such supposed ‘organizations,’ which are conducting profiling, are criminal organizations in the eyes of the law,” Tezcan said after his party’s Central Executive Board Meeting on Aug. 9. 

Brandishing a document from the Nevşehir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation file on the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), Tezcan said the court appealed to the “Presidential National Security Unit” in order to receive information. 

“There is no such institution called the Presidential National Security Unit. There is no such organization, it is not legally founded. So it is clearly carrying out intelligence activity,” he said.

“It is a crime to collect intelligence with an organization that is not defined by the law,” he added, calling on the government to give an explanation. 

“In particular the AKP leader, the prime minister, the interior minister, and the justice minister are obliged to explain this issue,” Tezcan said. 

He added that the official institutions that courts and prosecutors can appeal to receive information from in relation to ongoing investigations are the Gendarmerie Intelligence Office, the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) and the Police Intelligence Department.

“But as you can see, judicial bodies are collecting information from other sources,” Tezcan said.

“What is this unit? Who is collecting information and profiling within the state under the name of the presidency? How can courts refer to those organizations and how can police regard them as a data pool,” he added. 

“This is a process of creating a parallel state. The government should immediately explain itself,” he added. 

Tezcan also stated that the name of the organization on the request states “presidential,” even though this term is not within the state terminology of Turkish Republic.  

“Is there an institution called ‘the Presidency’ in Turkey? It does not say the ‘President of the Republic’ or the ‘Prime Minister, it states ‘President,” he said.