Turkish intelligence looks into telecom privatizations

Exactly two weeks after summoning German Ambassador to Ankara Eberhard Pohl over electronic spying claims, the Turkish Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ankara, Jess Bailey, over similar claims. They demanded the U.S. stop spying on Turkey at once, “if the claims are true.”

The claims were published by German magazine Der Spiegel on Aug. 31. Primarily based on documents from the archive of ex-intelligence officer Edward Snowden, the claims are about the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the British GCHQ. The report claimed that the U.S., while cooperating with Turkey against the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), covertly set up listening posts in Turkey in order to tap the Turkish leadership. While the activities against the PKK via the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were carried out through a certain “Combined Intelligence Fusion Cell [CIFC]” and “Special Liaison Activity Turkey [SUSLAT],” the NSA allegedly carried out covert activities via two listening posts under the “Special Collection Service [SCS],” also partly in cooperation with GCHQ. The latter was already advanced in its electronic spying, targeting particularly the Turkish Energy Ministry, according to the report.

According to Der Spiegel’s report, the killing of 34 smugglers in December 2011 near Uludere by Turkish jets mistakenly targeted as PKK militants crossing the border from Iraq to Turkey for the attacks was a result of this cooperation – data passed on to Turkish military intelligence by U.S. drones.

Like the earlier report regarding the eavesdropping of German intelligence...