Turkey: Inspectors Find İrregularities İn İntel Ops

Irregularities have been found in pre-emptive intelligence operations carried out in Istanbul in 2008 and thereafter, according to an inspection report issued by Turkey's Interior Ministry on Thursday. 



The 3,000-page report on Turkey's 'parallel state' probe into alleged espionage and illegal wiretapping revealed a number of irregularities in the practices of intercepting phone conversations as well as assessing phone signals within the scope of pre-emptive intelligence operations.  



"It is out of the question for such an illegal, parallel state to survive. It is bound to be dissolved by the legal, constitutional state sooner or later," said Nurettin Canikli, deputy group chairman of ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.



"I think this is a serious crisis of confidence," Fatma Sahin, mayor of the southeastern city of Gaziantep, told a press briefing.



During her term as the minister of family and social policies, Sahin had filed a criminal complaint about the public officers involved in the illegal wiretapping of private and encrypted phone conversations of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.



Eleven police officers, including the former chief of Istanbul's anti-terror police department were arrested Tuesday night as part of "parallel state" operations.



The Istanbul court ordered conditional release for eight suspects and released 30 others detained during an Istanbul-based arrest operation which began last week in several Turkish cities.



The court action follows two high-profile, Istanbul-based anti-graft operations which were launched in December last year and led to the arrest of high-profile figures including the sons of the three government ministers as well as several entrepreneurs.



All those detained in the probe were later released pending trial.



The Turkish government has denounced the December probes as a "dirty plot" constructed by a "parallel structure" -- group of bureaucrats embedded within the country's key institutions, including the judiciary branch and the police.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara