The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has increased its foreign intelligence activities in 2020, MIT head Hakan Fidan stated in a recently published report.
Fidan, evaluating the MIT 2020 activity report, stated: "Our organization has shouldered active duties in accordance with our country’s interests in conflict zones, increased foreign intelligence activities, carried the fight against terrorism to an international dimension and uncovered intelligence activities that targeted our country and has made technical intelligence part of its works’ main component."
He added that MIT has worked successfully both within the country and abroad against new threats and noted the transformation that has been seen in the international system in 2020 in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fidan is a former noncommissioned officer who served overseas at the Intelligence and Operations Command of the NATO Rapid Reaction Corps in Germany before switching to a civilian career.
"As MIT, we strive to produce game-changing strategies, develop new methods in the field of intelligence, blend our own techniques in the light of the changes in the world and adapt to changes in the fastest and most flexible manner," Fidan stated.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan similarly attaches high significance to the activities of MIT. During the opening ceremony of MIT’s new Istanbul Regional Directorate, the president called intelligence a key point for any country striving to be a world power.
"It is imperative that we manufacture our needs in terms of intelligence domestically. Any country that has no intelligence is destined to cease existing," he said.
"The operational and intelligence support provided by MIT proved to be a game-changer in Libya. Our increasing sphere of influence in international intelligence has allowed Turkey to become a global power on all levels," the president said.
MIT frequently carries out cross-border counterterrorism operations especially in northern Syria and Iraq. Most recently, three so-called high-ranking PKK members responsible for the terrorist organization’s intelligence and financial activities were killed by Turkish security forces in an operation carried out by MIT in northern Iraq’s Metina region, security sources revealed on Feb. 22.
Furthermore, as part of interior operations, police in Turkey’s capital Ankara detained a senior Daesh terrorist and an al-Shabab terrorist in joint operations carried out in cooperation with MIT last week.