Turkish government mum about abducted intelligence personnel
Several senior Turkish intelligence officials have been in PKK hands for more than three months, but the government is refusing to share what it knows about them with the parliament.
An undeclared number of senior officers from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have been held by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for more than three months, but the government continues to refuse to respond to opposition requests for information on the situation. The refusal of intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to appear before the legislature or otherwise provide answers to parliamentary inquiries has led the opposition to conclude that the government is trying to avoid acknowledging that the MIT has been engaged in “activities exceeding its mission.”
Alican Unlu, a representative from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who has filed a parliamentary query, told Al-Monitor that the abducted MIT personnel had been tasked with assassinations, which is why the government is maintaining its silence.
