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MİT To Become Wiretapping Base

23.07.2014 11:58

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has taken yet another controversial step by announcing his plan for abolishing the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) and transferring its powers to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). The government has already been widely criticized for expanding the powers of MİT and granting criminal immunity to its members through a recently adopted law. With Erdoğan's latest statement, growing concern emerged among commentators, who say Turkey is gradually becoming an intelligence state, with basic rights and freedoms such as privacy being undermined. Meanwhile, the TİB is already headed by Ahmet Cemalettin Çelik, who used to work closely with MİT chief Hakan Fidan. Ex-MİT officer Çelik was appointed as the TİB's new head shortly after the Dec. 17 2013 corruption scandal implicating four Cabinet ministers, who have now resigned, became public.Hürriyet daily columnist Mehmey Y. Yılmaz wrote a piece on Tuesday titled “One step closer to becoming an in

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has taken yet another controversial step by announcing his plan for abolishing the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) and transferring its powers to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

The government has already been widely criticized for expanding the powers of MİT and granting criminal immunity to its members through a recently adopted law. With Erdoğan's latest statement, growing concern emerged among commentators, who say Turkey is gradually becoming an intelligence state, with basic rights and freedoms such as privacy being undermined. Meanwhile, the TİB is already headed by Ahmet Cemalettin Çelik, who used to work closely with MİT chief Hakan Fidan. Ex-MİT officer Çelik was appointed as the TİB's new head shortly after the Dec. 17 2013 corruption scandal implicating four Cabinet ministers, who have now resigned, became public.

Hürriyet daily columnist Mehmey Y. Yılmaz wrote a piece on Tuesday titled “One step closer to becoming an intelligence state.” Yılmaz stated that the TİB, which was established by the Erdoğan government, is currently responsible for monitoring communication activities, as per court rulings. The fact that the TİB is run by an independent administrative body, the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK), is preventing the government from arbitrarily curbing people's constitutional right to communication, Yılmaz noted. However, if the powers of TİB are transferred to MİT, this would mean that MİT would be able to act both as a body who could demand wiretapping orders, and as the body who would assess such demands, Yılmaz stated. “This would be exactly like trusting the wolf to guard the sheep,” Yılmaz commented, adding: “The shape of the regime Prime Minister Erdoğan plans to introduce is getting clearer with each passing day. Apparently his goal is establishing an order in which he can control everything via an intelligence organization. He is implementing his plan step by step, under a mask of ‘fighting against a parallel state'.”

Yavuz Semerci, a columnist with the Habertürk daily, pointed out the fact that the TİB is a state body that carries out wiretapping by orders issued from the courts, and that it can be supervised, unlike MİT. According to Semerci, by planning to make MİT the headquarters for wiretappings, it is obvious that Erdoğan wants to make the country into an intelligence state. Semerci commented that the majority of people in Turkey would not care about this change, as some would even accept if Erdoğan said, “I am bringing back the sultanate, because this is [what is] better for Turkey.” Semerci wrote: “They [Erdoğan supporters] would see you as a traitor when you say ‘If you give the sole power to regulate wiretapping to a body that already has wiretapping authority, you cannot control it. This is how [people like] Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad emerged.”

GÜNAY HİLAL AYGÜN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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