Turkey's intelligence network seems to be expanding. Having reached neighborhood headmen, the state's intelligence tentacles are now spreading to ordinary citizens.
In August 2015, amid mounting violence and terrorist attacks in the mainly Kurdish southeast, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged mukhtars — village and neighborhood leaders — to back security forces' intelligence-gathering efforts. "I expect support on this issue from our mukhtars as well. I know my mukhtars [are aware] what kind of people live in which house. They [need to] go to their governors or police chiefs and report this to them in an appropriate and calm manner," he said. Around the same time, the authorities launched an electronic Mukhtar Information System, ostensibly to expand intelligence gathering to every household.
Now, in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt, ordinary citizens are feeding intelligence services. Haberturk daily reported Oct. 1 that the number of tipoffs to the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has exceeded 10,000 per month, up from about 2,000 before the putsch. Similarly, the number of visitors on the MIT's website has grown from 90,000 to 250,000 per month. The main target of the informants is the Gulen community or the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization (FETO), as Ankara calls it, which stands accused of the coup plot. With a fivefold increase in tipoffs, the people's enthusiasm seems to be strengthening the informant mechanism.
The MIT website has a "How can you help?" section, which includes a form for the person's name, surname, telephone number, email and residential address. Then there is the "Your message" box, in which citizens can write the information they want to convey. Staying anonymous is also possible. Citizens are assured that their messages are protected by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption against "the intervention of third parties" and that "any information, which is not imaginary and does not involve grudge and rests on real facts/evidence, is important for MIT and is being evaluated."
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