Big Brother is Watching . . . and Recording

Not that the United States is much better in this regard, but kudos to MP Akın Birdal . . .

From BIA-Net:

Akın Birdal, Diyarbakır deputy for the Democratic Society Party (DTP), submitted a motion of question for keeping files on hundreds of people in Istanbul, which was described by retired major Fikret Emek, one of the accused in the Ergenekon case, as “a routine job of the Special Forces Command Post.”

Talking to bianet, Birdal says the government should show the necessary will to go against this unlawful practice and to uncover the perpetrators: “AKP should want this and we should support it.”

Did keeping files go on?
Birdal’s questions, which he wants to be replied by Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, are:

1. Is it true that the units responsible for the internal security kept files by subjecting individuals and institutions to political evaluation?

2. Which institution kept files on people?

3. Does keeping files cover only the period of 1999-2000? Or, is keeping files on people comes all the way to the present?

4. Is it legal according to the official regulations that an institution can keep files on individuals and institutions? If it is legal then which institutions can keep files on people? What is the purpose of keeping files?

5. Was your ministry aware of this procedure of keeping files on people?

6. Has the individual or the institution which keeps files on people ever been investigated because of keeping files? If there has, then what was the result?

7. Has there been an administrative or judicial investigation about the individuals or institutions that have been politically evaluated through keeping files on them?

8. Do you think keeping files is justifiable in the context of human rights and freedoms and personal safety and freedom, including the right to live?

9. Do you think there should be a parliamentary inquiry about this unlawful practice that is against democracy and human rights?

DTP will want an investigative commission
Birdal says there must be an investigative commission and the parliamentary group of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) told bianet that they were planning to form an investigative commission.

According to the documents uncovered in the Ergenekon investigation, individuals are filed with descriptions such as “PKK, DHKP/C, TİKKO, MLKP, radical left, reactionary religious, Nakşibendi, Süleymancı, Nurcu” across their names. The acronyms represent the radical leftist and Islamic congregations deemed dangerous.

Retired major Emek, in whose house these files were found, describes the whole thing as one of the routine duties of the Special Forces, which he had to do when he was assigned to this post. (TK/EZÖ)