Top court refuses to annul law on MİT

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Prosecutors will need a permission from the prime minister to question Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan. AA photo

Turkey’s Constitutional Court denied a request to annul a law that required the prime minister’s permission to investigate intelligence officers yesterday.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had asked for the court to annul the law, which had been rushed through by the government, because they felt it was illegal in regards to the principles of rule of law and justice.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) hurried the law in question through Parliament last February, when a prosecutor wanted to summon Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan and three other top MİT officials for the Oslo talks. Meetings conducted secretly between the AKP and some senior PKK operatives between 2009 and 2011 in Oslo, Norway in hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue were later nicknamed the Oslo talks. The prosecutor had alleged that MİT colluded with the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the PKK, and its operatives to engage in violence.

Personal representative

The probe targeting MİT alarmed the government, who may have also been implicated as Fidan and other MİT officials summoned for questioning were all involved in the talks with the PKK, talks that were reportedly held at Erdoğan’s personal instruction. Fidan, who was not chief of the agency at the time of the “Oslo talks,” reportedly said he was personally representing Erdoğan on recordings of the meetings that were later leaked to the Internet.