President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government granted a staggering 125.7 percent increase in this year’s budget for Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MIT), a key entity it has relied upon heavily over the last decade to govern the nation of 85 million with an iron fist.
The government’s proposal to allocate 17.4 billion Turkish lira to MIT in the central budget, a significant increase from the 2023 budget of TL 7.7 billion, was rubber-stamped by the parliament without modification in late December.
The increase in funding is yet another indication that President Erdogan intends to persist in relying on intelligence to maintain his hold on power, suppress opposition and perpetuate a climate of fear for critics and opponents.
Since 2020 the government has ceased publishing MIT’s spending and asset reports — which were audited annually by the Court of Accounts (Sayıştay) on behalf of the legislature, which has oversight power to review government expenditures — as a means of concealing MIT’s financial resources and assets.
Currently led by İbrahim Kalın, Erdogan’s former advisor and spokesperson, the agency’s primary focus is to bolster Erdogan’s repressive regime rather than to safeguard the country’s democracy or address national security challenges on behalf of the nation. It has become preoccupied with false flags and psychological and influence operations to promote the Erdogan government and has been implicated in extrajudicial murders, kidnappings and torture.
The official budget figure only reveals the partial story regarding the extent of funding allocated to the spy agency for supporting clandestine organizations. The 2020 audit report showed that the agency controlled assets amounting to 32.7 billion Turkish lira. The current value is unknown due to the government’s discontinuing the publication of the audit reports, but it is anticipated to have more than doubled since then.
The data sheet submitted to parliament as a component of the budget proposal by the Presidential Office revealed that the agency intends to allocate 10.7 billion Turkish lira for personnel in 2024, indicating a substantial expansion of its human resources. The official figures provide valuable insight into the agency’s growth in manpower as it seeks to safeguard benefits for its employees, including social security and pension funds. While the agency can finance clandestine operations outside the official budget, the official registration is necessary for funding agents’ salaries.
The total manpower of MIT is not officially disclosed, but estimates suggest it to be around 20,000, more than double the figure from a decade ago. Additionally, when factoring in a widespread network of assets and informants both in Turkey and abroad, the agency is believed to have engaged well over 50,000 individuals in various capacities.
In addition to the allocated TL 17.4 billion from the central budget, MIT has access to other funding sources that are challenging and, in some cases, impossible to trace and identify. The agency secures its own share from illicit activities such as arms and drug trafficking, obtains assets through unlawful seizures from government critics and earns commissions from money laundering activities associated with organized crime networks.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that between 2 and 5 percent of the global GDP is laundered annually, amounting to a staggering $800 billion to $2 trillion. While the specific share of Turkey in this money laundering scheme is undisclosed, it is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars, reflecting the deeply rooted mafia structure within the political establishment.
According to the main opposition party, Turkey has emerged as a leader in Europe in money laundering, particularly from the proceeds of illegal schemes such as drug and human trafficking. This trend is attributed to the permissive environment tolerated by the Erdogan government, as stated by the opposition.
MIT has also been able to access funds from the Defense Industry Support Fund (SSDF), an extra-budgetary resource for defense managed by the Presidency of the Defense Industry (SSB), formerly known as the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM).
In a legislative amendment in 2014, Erdogan facilitated MIT’s access to the SSDF for its expenditures. This change exempted MIT from adhering to SSDF regulations governing tenders. Consequently, the agency was no longer obliged to disclose information regarding the purpose of the funds, and it could conduct arms procurement tenders according to its own regulations, with the SSDF providing the funds without specified limitations.
Unfortunately, without access to the audit report, the specific amount that MIT has spent from the SSDF fund, currently valued at 162.6 billion Turkish lira, is not publicly available. The lack of transparency in financial reporting makes it challenging to ascertain the exact utilization of these funds by the agency.
MIT also accesses public funds through the discretionary fund allocated to President Erdogan, which allows him to spend for various purposes without disclosing details. In the first 11 months of 2023, the expenditure from the discretionary fund amounted to TL 5.7 billion, indicating a noteworthy increase of 63 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.
The prevailing culture within the agency is characterized by a blend of political Islam and far-right ideologies. The senior leadership positions are occupied by individuals with affiliations to political Islam, far-right nationalism and neo-nationalism, sharing a common stance marked by a strong aversion to the West and NATO allies. Since December 2013, when President Erdogan was implicated in corruption probes involving a money laundering scheme for Iran, the government has conducted purges, removing hundreds of agents from service due to their critical views of the Erdogan government.
