KEBABBLE Just what's bugging
the Turks? By Fazile Zahir
FETHIYE, Turkey - It's the stuff the best
spy stories are made of, the broadsheets this week
had a small story in their technology sections
about Tubitak National Institute for Electronics
and Encryption Research (UEKAE) having developed a
completely original software package allowing
mobile phones to be encrypted.
This makes
it possible for mobiles to be safe enough to
discuss national secrets without fear of
interception. This type of protection, Tubitak
claims, is especially vital in the field of
military communication when phone calls
intercepted by alien agencies
could
have potentially fatal consequences for soldiers
in the field.
According to Tubitak's press
statement they have been working on the technology
for 20 years and it will be offered first to
Turkey's army and then to public and private
companies. This software, they say, will put
Turkey in the top league of countries for
protecting information and privacy. There will be
many for whom the encrypted cell phone has come
not a moment too soon and others who are already
regretting the development.
Article 22 of
the 1982 Turkish constitution states, "Secrecy of
communication is fundamental. Communication shall
not be impeded nor its secrecy be violated," but
also adds, "Exceptions necessitated by judiciary
investigation and prosecution are reserved."
There are severe penalties for those who
tap phones ranging from one to four years in jail.
However, the punishments have done little to deter
the police and secret services in the past. Guneri
Civaoglu, a columnist for Milliyet newspaper,
coined the phrase Buyuk Kulak (Big Ear) to
describe the activities of the shadowy state
surveillance operatives in the late 1990s and
claimed in 1996 that the right to privacy of the
individual was "practically raped in Turkey".
During those years the use of bugging
devices was largely unregulated. Opposition leader
Mesut Yilmaz complained in 1998 that not only were
his telephones tapped but that the walls of his
house were bugged. At the end of the 1990s
Parliament established a committee to investigate
allegations of government phone taps.
The
50-page report, produced in 1999, confirmed
long-held suspicions that the Security Directorate
had established a listening center on the eighth
floor of their building and were able to listen in
on all telephone communications, including mobile
calls. The report logged 963 people whose
conversations had been illegally tapped between
May 1998 and May 1999, including the president,
the prime minister, the commander-in-chief of the
army, the defense minister, the national security
department, ministers, members of Parliament,
journalists, the chief executive officers of large
companies, the head of state security, the head of
security for Istanbul, union officials, judges and
the artist Bedri Baykam.
As a result of
the investigation 21 one police (of different
levels of seniority) were tried for illegal phone
bugging and accused of violating the right to free
speech and establishing a tapping gang. Eleven
security officers were also removed from their
posts. At his trial in October 1999 assistant
director of Ankara's Security and Intelligence
agency, Osman Ak, defended himself and his
coworkers saying, "Gang, moles, thieves, rascals,
tele-ears, big ears - they said all these things.
They called us the eighth floor gang. What did we
do on the eighth floor? We're not the eighth floor
gang, we're the eighth floor heroes."
He
was ultimately released because of "lack of
evidence". Though the report condemned
unauthorized phone taps it also pointed out that
selective secret bugging of phones in Turkey had
enabled the Security Directorate to solve 33
assassination attempts since 1995.
Wire-tapping scandals continued in the
early part of the 21st century. In 2000 one of the
chairmen of the supreme Court, judge Naci Unver
sued the Interior Ministry after discovering his
office phone was bugged. The ministry derided the
judge saying his claims that his personal freedom
and the independence of the judiciary were
threatened were "obscure and pointless". They
added that if he didn't withdraw his compensation
case there would be "no end to lawsuits filed" and
that the judge would get rich off the proceeds. To
add insult to injury they added that the police
had listened - not taped - so there was no
criminal offense.
As a sop to the judge,
the Interior Minister said new guidelines
concerning punishment for wiretaps would be
issued, but they never appeared and more
high-level complaints came thick and fast. In
April 2001, the Istanbul Security Director was
accused of wiretapping the Istanbul governor's
telephone calls. In May 2001, the Foreign Ministry
launched an investigation following reports that
its phones were being tapped. The parliamentary
speaker also expressed concern about the alleged
surveillance of a deputy from the Motherland Party
and referred the matter to the State Security
Court (DGM).
The Interior Ministry
continued to protest its innocence, but in June
2001 it bowed to pressure and established a
delegation of three chief inspectors from the
Directorate General of Security to determine
whether officials have been abusing their
authority. A few months later, in October 2001, in
a move aimed at improving its chances of accession
to the European Union, Turkey passed the
Constitutional Amendment Bill, containing 34
proposals for amendment to the constitution.
Several of the proposals strengthened the
basic rights and freedoms of individuals,
including increased protection for privacy of the
person and the home. In 2004 further EU sweeteners
were enacted by the Telecommunications Authority
who passed regulations on the security and privacy
of communications similar to the EU's 1997
directive on data protection in electronic
communications.
The security services,
though, have been fighting back. In July 2006 a
law permitting government approved wire taps came
into effect which allowed MIT (the Turkish
intelligence agency), the jandarma
(military police) and the police to monitor phone
conversations providing they obtained permission
from the Telecommunications Directorate.
The pressure continued, and in a letter
probably deliberately leaked to the media by
minister Abdullatif Sener in early 2007, the
National Intelligence Agency under secretary, Emre
Taner, complained about the difficulties the
national intelligence community was facing because
of existing legislation against phone tapping and
eavesdropping.
He requested an amendment
in the law to enhance the eavesdropping power of
the agency. Only a few months later, following
deadly bombings in Ankara in May 2007, the
government proposed a law enforcement bill that
allowed police to use anyone to collect
information. Some lawyers say it represents the
largest expansion of police authority ever.
Neither the police nor the state security
forces seem prepared to give up listening to all
and sundry. And they have an even stronger partner
in crime - the army. Both the jandarma and
the armed forces themselves operate wire-tapping
networks and the intelligence they gather is not
necessarily released to civilian authorities,
particularly if they are listening to one of their
own.
The army hoards its information and
often ties the hands of the civilian authorities
as a result. Early this year the state department
arrested members of the Ergenkon gang who had been
planning a coup against the government and one of
their leaders was retired general Veli Kucuk. It
is widely rumored that they were unable to act on
intelligence they had gathered until the army
agreed to the arrests and to pass on information
that they had independently gathered.
No
amount of civil regulation can ensure that the
right to privacy can succeed while the nation's
largest independent force refuses to be bound by
it. Tubitak's offer to send its "wonder phone" to
the army will probably be eagerly accepted and
then it will disappear off the civilian radar.
After all, if the left hand knows what the right
hand is doing someone else might find out.
Fazile Zahir is of
Turkish descent, born and brought up in London.
She moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been
writing full time since then. (Copyright 2008
Fazile Zahir.)
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