National Intelligence Organization

The amount of spending from the Turkish state's discretionary fund has risen again, amounting to 6.8 billion Turkish Liras over the last 12 years, including the spending of the Prime Ministry, according to data from the Finance Ministry.

Today, on the day of Nevruz, or Newroz as Kurds call it, the attention of millions in Turkey is focused on a message that will be conveyed to hundreds of thousands of people awaiting it in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbak?r.

The message will come from Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK), imprisoned since 1999.

An Istanbul prosecutor has dismissed a lawsuit into former Interior Minister ?dris Naim ?ahin?s claims that the National Intelligence Organization (M?T) played a role in an Istanbul bomb attack in which an 18-year-old woman was killed.

At least 10 police officers were detained across Turkey as a part of the illegal wiretapping operation into the "parallel state," while arrest warrants were issued for 35 officers.

Security forces launched the operation, based in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas, at around 11 a.m. on March 13.

Turkey?s Kurdish problem could take yet another step this weekend toward a political solution, according to Pervin Buldan, an MP for the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) and an active member mediating the talks between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) for the last three years.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called on President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an to voice his justification for why he did not find the country?s top intelligence official?s transition to the political stage appropriate.

Hakan Fidan returned to work as the head of the National Intelligence Organization (M?T) late March 10 after he withdrew his application to run for parliament for the ruling party amid an ongoing legal dispute over his return to his former post.

Hakan Fidan, the chief of the National Intelligence Organization (M?T), has had to abandon his desire to run for active politics from the ranks of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), four weeks after he resigned from his job.

With Hakan Fidan making a quick exit from politics back to the post of undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization, is it possible to assume that the Fidan incident was a humiliation for Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and a declaration of victory for President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an in the first major battle for power in the ruling party?

National Intelligence Organization (M?T) head Hakan Fidan has the right to withdraw from being a nominee for parliament and can return to his former official post even if he runs in and loses an election, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has said, ruling out any discord between himself and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an over the matter.