A new, larger headquarters for Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was inaugurated Monday in the capital Ankara. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and ministers opened the headquarters dubbed “Kale,” or “Fortress,” by the directorate.
The massive complex, built in a space of 5,000 acres in the Bağlıca neighborhood of the city’s Etimesgut district, is surrounded with three-meter high concrete walls, barbed wire and fitted with a secretive security system against unauthorized access, infiltration and wiretapping.
The organization moved its headquarters at least three times since its foundation in 1965. Its last headquarters was in the Yenimahalle district of the capital. That building came under fire by putschists during the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Erdoğan said that intelligence was indispensable both in wartime and peacetime for a country’s existence.
The president noted that the National Intelligence Organization was among the strongest intelligence agencies in the world.
Among the accomplishments of MİT, Erdoğan listed the organization’s assistance in counter-terrorism operations in northern Iraq.
“Their operations against senior cadres of the PKK in northern Iraq demolished what they felt was the safest places for them to hide out,” he said. “The intelligence provided by MİT was used in operations by unmanned drones to inflict losses on the PKK. This is an important indicator of the level we reached in combining technology and intelligence.”
“The role of national intelligence in solving the murder of Khashoggi was outstanding and made our country proud at the international level,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also acknowledged that MİT was “thoroughly fulfilling its duties in Libya,” after media reports claimed Turkey sent intelligence officers to the North African country after the Turkish parliament authorized last week’s deployment of troops to assist Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA).
