Emre Taner

"July 15 has compiled several lessons for us to draw from," is the starting sentence of former National Security Organization (MİT) undersecretary Emre Taner's opinion on the intelligence gap concerning last year's coup attempt. Taner served between the years 2005 and 2010. 

Almost a year has passed since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, but the intelligence dimension of this insurrection is still debated.

Former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Emre Taner emphasized the "external" dimension of the coup in the Nov. 9, 2016 session of parliament's inquiry commission.

Emre Taner ran the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) from 2005 to 2010. A veteran intelligence officer who had been recruited as a young student in Ankara University, Taner was the one who had proposed and launched a move to establish dialogue with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 2008-2009. 

Assassination attempts targeting senior politicians may be carried out following the failure of the July 15 military coup attempt, a former head of Turkey's intelligence agency has said, stressing that special precautions should be adopted. 

The Turkish Republic, just like the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago, is heading into its longest year. It?s such an irony that the more things change, the more they practically stay the same. Turkey?s president wants to ignore a highly popular election result and start all over again, and reformists and the secular opposition parties are too shy and too incapable of changing the dynamics.