Turkey in shock over probe on intel chiefs

Ankara has been left perplexed after a special-authority prosecutor summoned the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and two retired officials for questioning over past talks with outlawed Kurdish militants in Oslo.

MIT chief Hakan Fidan is the first incumbent head of the intelligence service to be summoned to answer questions in a judicial probe. Fidan, his predecessor, Emre Taner, and former MIT deputy chair Afet Gunes, who were all involved in talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were summoned Feb. 7, Istanbul’s deputy chief prosecutor Fikret Secen told reporters.

Secen declined to say whether the three would be questioned as witnesses, suspects, or just individuals who may possess information related to the judiciary’s wide-ranging investigation into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the PKK’s alleged urban wing. They were called by prosecutor Sadrettin Sarikaya, who is in charge of the KCK probe in Istanbul, Secen added.

Politicians in Ankara were surprised by the announcement, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc expressing astonishment that they could be called to testify in the KCK probe and wondering whether Fidan could even be legally questioned.

Appointed to the head of the MIT in early 2010, Fidan made headlines in September 2011 following the release of voice recordings of a meeting between the M?T and PKK’s senior officials in Oslo. The meeting reportedly took place between late 2009 and early 2010.


/Hurriyet Daily News/