An espionage gang that used blackmail to extort intelligence on Turkey's security projects installed secret cameras all over a facility of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and illegally videotaped most of the agency's employees for blackmail purposes. An investigation began into allegations that a military espionage gang catalogued 1,048 people working at TÜBİTAK on the basis of their religious beliefs, ideological outlook, sexual orientation and other personal data after an anonymous tipster wrote a letter to prosecutors in 2010. The investigators have recently found that bugs, cameras hidden from view and other recording devices were installed in various places in TÜBİTAK's Marmara Research Center (MAM) facility, located near İstanbul in Gebze, to make illegal recordings. Detectives have established that the MAM facility, which also includes a 157-bed hotel and a 150-bed guesthouse, had gang-installed microphones, bugs for eavesdropping and hidden cameras in almost every room. A list of the 1,048 people catalogued by gang members confirms this, as some people have the note, “We have recordings on him made at the institute.”
Investigators say the gang used blackmail tactics to extort vital information about Turkey's security projects from individuals holding strategic positions at TÜBİTAK. The gang has an archive of footage showing male employees in compromising positions with women. The espionage investigation is being conducted by the same prosecutors investigating Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government. A number of people -- including Yücel Çipli, a security officer at TÜBİTAK -- have been arrested in relation to the allegations.
A TÜBİTAK worker who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons told the Radikal newspaper that a purging operation was started at TÜBİTAK after Çipli's arrest. The witness said, “After the arrests at TÜBİTAK, security officers B.Ş., E.S., K.A. and T.F.A destroyed the footage archive. Between Nov. 13 and Nov. 30, they lit fires every Saturday and Sunday around the site of the trash containers near the TÜBİTAK campus, burning CDs, computer hard disk drives, recordings and documents.”
The account makes sense, as the TÜBİTAK administration failed to find any security camera recordings of the facility made prior to 2011 after the cataloguing scandal emerged. The investigators will now look for bugs and other covert listening devices in the Gebze building. Meanwhile, security officers known to have had a close relationship with Çipli were reassigned to new positions at different locations.
In related developments, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün promised that any losses the victims who were catalogued or blackmailed by the gang might have suffered will be compensated. He said in response to a parliamentary query on Tuesday, “Anyone who makes a claim will be compensated.”
A TÜBİTAK worker who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons told the Radikal newspaper that a purging operation was started at TÜBİTAK after Çipli's arrest. The witness said, “After the arrests at TÜBİTAK, security officers B.Ş., E.S., K.A. and T.F.A destroyed the footage archive. Between Nov. 13 and Nov. 30, they lit fires every Saturday and Sunday around the site of the trash containers near the TÜBİTAK campus, burning CDs, computer hard disk drives, recordings and documents.”
The account makes sense, as the TÜBİTAK administration failed to find any security camera recordings of the facility made prior to 2011 after the cataloguing scandal emerged. The investigators will now look for bugs and other covert listening devices in the Gebze building. Meanwhile, security officers known to have had a close relationship with Çipli were reassigned to new positions at different locations.
In related developments, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün promised that any losses the victims who were catalogued or blackmailed by the gang might have suffered will be compensated. He said in response to a parliamentary query on Tuesday, “Anyone who makes a claim will be compensated.”
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