National Intelligence Organization of Turkey Announced its 2021 Annual Report

#Turkey

On March 9, 2022, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) published its annual report on the performance of the agency for the year 2021. The report addresses the threats that have been dealt with by the MIT, the major forecasted trends around the global, as well as the agency's announced budget.

According to the financial information that is included in the organization’s report, the MIT's initial appropriation for 2021 was 2.628.749.000,00 TL, and as a result of the transactions realized during the year, the total appropriation was 3.115.407.886,77 TL and the total expenditure was 3.115.014.484,65 TL. These figures do not include the uncovered financial provision.

The President of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Dr. Hakan Fidan emphasized in a statement he gave that “it is essential to have the intelligent power to use the hard and soft power elements in a balanced way in the face of the multi-layered security system in the world and the accompanying risks.”

Dr. Fidan added that “At this point, the National Intelligence Organization, which is the institution responsible for state intelligence in our country; It will continue to play a critical role in the creation of a "smart power" by our state, thanks to intelligence gathering, operational capability and intelligence diplomacy.”

Moreover, the President of the organization gave a brief on the major threats being addressed by the national institution as he said: “In addition to the classical threats, new threat areas emerge with the evolution and change of these threats. For example, accelerating hypersonic missile tests, developing cyber technology, competition in space, cyber-attacks, new risk areas brought by virtual reality and far-right movements came to the fore in 2021.”

He noted that “in 2021, the efficiency in the field of foreign intelligence was increased, and "target-oriented point operations" were carried out against threats.”

Fidan also stressed that “With the fact that we are one step ahead of our competitors when a mind and understanding is developed that will surround them, we attach importance to the methodology of increasing the level of preparedness of our state by developing a strategic view against threats.”

He added: “In the field of countering intelligence, espionage activities targeting our country have been exposed, the work of many countries towards other countries has been revealed, and agent networks have been destroyed.” Dr. Fidan declared that “Efforts to decipher FETÖ/PDY's secret communication methods, private structures, activities abroad and black propaganda attempts aimed at wearing down our country continued uninterruptedly.”

It is well known that, during the past year, Turkey dismantled Israeli, Iranian and Russian networks within Turkey.

As a result of the cross-border operations against the PKK/KCK leadership, the organization's operational capability was limited in 2021 and its action capacity was reduced.

As Fidan pointed out in the Turkish intelligence report that "we attach importance to the methodology of increasing the level of preparedness of our state by developing a strategic view to face regional and global risks and threats." This lies, according to Fidan, in acquiring new technologies.

Generally speaking, the report issued by the agency is a part of a global trend by many intelligence agencies to issue annual reports, reviewing the most prominent achievements, the threats that have been dealt with, and the prediction of expected future threats. Such a trend started in the US and spread to other countries around the world.