Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s attendance at the 97th-anniversary celebrations of the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) has caused an uproar, as pictures of the event shared on Erdoğan’s account on social media platform X revealed the faces of those attending, including senior MİT officials.
The revelation has sparked a wave of criticism from social media users, recalling the strict regulations on the disclosure of information related to the country’s intelligence personnel. According to the law, revealing the identities of people linked to the MİT is punishable by between two and eight years in prison.
This legal provision was particularly enforced in 2020, leading to the arrest of six journalists for reporting on MİT members who lost their lives in Libya. The interior minister at the time, Süleyman Soylu, defended the arrests by emphasising the existence of state secrets and ‘an understanding of national security’.
In response to the backlash, edits were quickly made to the shared content, with certain photos deleted from the post on Erdoğan’s account. Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, who had also posted similar content, mirrored the action by removing the photos from his social media account.
