Cabinet to get new secure phones by 2015, says Turkish minister

Members of the Council of Ministers and top military officials will get new anti-wiretapping phones before the end of the year, Industry Minister Fikri Işık said, while arguing that the "parallel structure" - a phrase used to describe the Gülenist movement - was deeply rooted in the strategic boards of the country's top science body.

"The parallel structure was entrenched in strategic positions at TÜBİTAK [The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey], such as the crypto department. They were not in the science or education departments. They performed wiretapping in military project fields. If you're not an organization, then why are you at the crypto department?" Işık said to a small group of journalists on Dec. 23, indicating that the government was fair when it labeled the Gülen movement under U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen a criminal organization aimed at toppling the elected ruling party.

Işık's remarks came as a follow-up to remarks delivered by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week.
During a signing ceremony for a Turkish satellite, Erdoğan implied the Gülen movement was a "gang of betrayal," which had also snuck into TÜBİTAK, the supreme body that also produces the satellite.

"The old crypto phones were decrypted together by TİB [the Telecommunications Directorate], TÜBİTAK and the parallel structure within the Police Department," said Işık, whose ministry is in charge of science and technology in addition to industry.

"All technical precautions have been taken against wiretapping and [the phones] will be distributed before the end of the year," Işık said, noting that the distribution list was being drafted by the Secretariat-General of the National Security Council (MGK) according to need...