...

Turkey to look into spying allegation during G-20 summit in Canada

Türkiye Materials 29 November 2013 09:09 (UTC +04:00)
Turkey to look into spying allegation during G-20 summit in Canada
Turkey to look into spying allegation during G-20 summit in Canada

Turkey will examine allegations of spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Canada during the G-8 and G-20 summits in 2010 and will take necessary measures, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu has said Today`s Zaman reported.

The source of these allegations is Canadian CBC News, which has reported that top secret documents retrieved by US whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government allowed the US spy agency to conduct widespread surveillance in Canada during the 2010 G-8 and G-20 summits.

"We are looking into those allegations. If there is any seriousness to them, we will not hesitate to take the necessary measures,'' Gumrukcu told Today's Zaman.

"Such things are unacceptable between friends and allies as we have made clear many times in the past," he added.

The briefing notes revealed by Canadian CBC, stamped "top secret," show the US turned its Ottawa embassy into a security command post during a six-day spying operation by the NSA, while US President Barack Obama and other foreign leaders, including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were in Canadian territory in June 2010.

According to the documents, the NSA has closely coordinated its spying efforts with the Canadian Communications Security Establishment and gathered foreign intelligence by covertly intercepting phone calls and hacking into computer systems around the world.

The top-secret documents do not reveal the intended target during the Toronto summit. Secret documents released by Snowden have provided new insights into the level of US and Canadian spying on allies and foreign diplomats. One NSA document describes the US eavesdropping agency's mandate at the Toronto summit as "providing support to policymakers."

Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has received asylum in Russia, has revealed many secret documents by the NSA, showing the widespread spying by the US on its allies, world leaders and millions of Americans.

Gumrukcu recalled that in the past there were serious allegations that Turkey's diplomatic missions, along with other US allies' diplomatic missions, were under surveillance by the NSA, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu brought up this issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Davutoglu asked Kerry for an explanation last summer regarding claims that US intelligence agencies spied on Turkish diplomats. Davutoglu brought up the issue in a "friendly fashion" during a regional security meeting in Brunei and conveyed Turkey's request for an explanation over the spying claims during the one-hour meeting and said that Turkey wouldn't want to see such incidents between allies.

Tags:
Latest

Latest