MİT (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı)

History

According to MİT’s chronology, on 19 December 1926 the Council of Ministers decided to create a secret National Security Service (M.E.H./MAH) for the security and defence of the state, attached directly to the Prime Minister’s office; it was MİT’s predecessor.²

After the military coup of 12 September 1980, Act No. 644 on MİT was replaced by Act No. 2937 of 1 November 1983, in force from 1 January 1984. MİT was placed directly under the Prime Minister, and the tasks of the MAH directorate were taken over by new directorates of domestic and foreign intelligence.³

Act No. 2937

As currently worded, the Act attaches MİT to the Presidency and places it under the head of the organisation (art. 3), who answers to the President (art. 7). Its tasks include intelligence for national security, directing the intelligence activities of other institutions, counterintelligence, and countering terrorism, cross-border crime and cyber threats; MİT may not be given any other tasks (art. 4).¹

Interception of communications as a rule requires a decision by a judge who is a member of a high criminal court in Ankara; in urgent cases a written order is issued by the head of the organisation or his deputy and is submitted to the judge within 24 hours (art. 6).¹

Oversight and finance

Activities under art. 6 are supervised by line superiors and the State Supervisory Council (Devlet Denetleme Kurulu); MİT’s budget is discussed by the relevant parliamentary committee in closed session (art. 20).¹

According to the activity report for 2024, the initial budget appropriation was 17.4 billion lira and total appropriations about 24.2 billion lira. The external audit was carried out by the Court of Accounts (Sayıştay).⁴