February 21, 2014

Welcome to the Mukhabarat state of Turkey

Emre Uslu

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has surely been establishing a Mukhabarat state similar to the one in Syria and Iran. The last bill introduced about the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is nothing but an obvious attempt to establish an Orwellian state in Turkey.

In order to establish such an authoritarian state, the AKP government passed a bill imposing heavy censorship on the Internet. Moreover, with the bill it removed the semi-independent nature of the judiciary.

Certainly, these steps are not enough establish a Mukhabarat state. It needs a police force that will execute whatever the government orders it to do. Thus, the AKP government has now proposed a bill to reorganize MİT as the guardian of the AKP regime, similar to the Revolutionary Guard of Iran.

With the new law, the AKP government gives MİT the right to conduct operations in the following areas: foreign threats, terrorism and “national security.”

Normally it is acceptable for an intelligence agency to focus on foreign threats. However, when it comes to granting rights for it to conduct operations against “terrorism” and “national security” threats, it will turn Turkey into a Mukhabarat state.

For us, experienced Turkish citizens, when it comes to the equivocal term “national security,” we all know what it means. For decades the Turkish military used the “national security” argument when it exercised influence over civilian politicians.

We all know that the term “national security” is such a flexible term that it can easily be manipulated by the authorities. Thus, allowing MİT to conduct operations under the name of a “national security” threat will practically make Turkey into an intelligence state.

Moreover, the new law allows the government to decide what is national security and what is not. For instance, until the corruption scandal, the Fethullah Gülen movement was not a national security threat. However, just because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan considers the group a national security threat, now the whole security bureaucracy has been reorganized to eliminate the new security threat.

Back in the 1990's, military generals were the ones who defined what was a “national security threat” or not. Back then Erdoğan and his Islamist network, the Milli Goruş (National View) movement, were considered a “national security threat” to the Turkish republic. Now Erdoğan and his intelligence agency, MİT, are in the same position of defining what is a national security threat. Obviously, just because Erdoğan considers the Gülen movement a political risk for his career, he has now declared them a national security threat.

Moreover, the term “terrorism” is also defined in a broad sense to criminalize the opposition in Turkey. For instance, in 2010 al-Qaeda was removed from the MİT terrorism list, but the Gülen movement and other Islamic networks that Erdoğan considers to be possible contenders in the future were added to the list.

Thus, the authority to define what is a national security risk and what is terrorism by subjective criteria and allowing MİT to conduct operations as the government wishes will easily turn Turkey into a Mukhabarat state.

In addition, the draft law makes MİT untouchable. There is no institution established, including Parliament, to oversee MİT. MİT and its agents are not allowed to be brought to court unless the prime minister allows them to be tried. That allows MİT agents to act without responsibility.

Furthermore, all institutions, including private business, associations, schools, airlines, banks, etc., must allow access to their data upon MİT's request. There is no legal right for those institutions to refuse MİT's request.

The media are not allowed to report any documents or information about MİT's operations. Even tweeting about MİT is strictly prohibited. Those who share information about MİT face 12 years in prison.

Public phones in the street, Turkish citizens who live abroad and foreigners' phone conversations can be wiretapped by MİT without any court procedure. That makes all foreign journalists who work in Turkey a target for MİT, and they don't have any right to keep their sources secure.

When the law passes, there will be nothing we can do for the future of Turkish democracy. Welcome to the Mukhabarat state of Turkey.

Published on Today's Zaman, 21 February 2014, Friday

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