Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey, amid renewed unrest, has been debating legislation  that would enable the intelligence community to access bank accounts and other personal information.

The government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has introduced a bill that would enable the National Intelligence Organization to spy on Turkish civilians.

The parliamentary opposition asserted that the intelligence agency, known by its Turkish acronym MIT, would be authorized to access accounts of banks and other financial institutions.

“What will we tell our citizens if our country is going to be run by intelligence?” opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu asked.

At a news conference on Feb. 21, Kilicdaroglu said the bill, introduced by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, would end the last traces of Turkish democracy. The chairman of the opposition Republican People’s Party predicted that the intelligence community would lead to a purge of suspected dissidents.

“If the state profiles its citizens and eavesdrops on them it will be the harshest of blows to our democracy,” Kilicdaroglu said.

On Feb. 22, parliament began debating the intelligence bill, which
sparked street protests. The opposition, along with non-governmental
organizations, said MIT would end any privacy in Turkey, particularly in
business and government.

“This regulation will hit the economy and will have a negative impact of
the functions of the economy,” parliamentarian Faik Oztrak, another member
of the Republican People’s Party, said.

Critics dismissed any security requirement for the legislation, which
also allowed authorities to block access to Internet sites. They said
Turkey, with the second largest military in NATO, did not face any major
foreign threats, including from neighboring Syria.

“This draft aims to increase the operational capacity of the MIT for the
government’s objectives of eradicating the opposition, profiling and
surveying citizens, and listening to them, rather than strengthening the
MIT’s intelligence and operational capacities [against other countries],”
Selahattin Demirtas, chairman of the Peace and Democracy Party, said.

  Justice and Development Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, National Intelligence Organization, Opposition warns Erdogan’s new intel laws would end Turkish democracy, Opposition: With new intel laws, Republican People’s Party