Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has denied claims that the alleged “parallel structure” within the Turkish state has a wiretapping base in the autonomous region, saying that reports don’t reflect the truth as there is no such a base in the region.
A week ago, some pro-government Turkish dailies including Star and Yeni Şafak alleged that there is a nine-person team from the “parallel structure” operating in the KRG and that this team wiretapped famous businessmen such as Ahmet Çalık, Hüsnü Özyeğin and Ahmet Nazif Zorlu. According to the reports, the alleged organization sent audio recordings to an archive center in the US state of Philadelphia. The organization is also alleged to have a station in Kirkuk which is not permanently checked, according to Sabah Daily.
The parallel structure is a term invented by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to refer to adherents of the Hizmet movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who allegedly operate from within the police and the judiciary.
Sefin Dizayee, a spokesperson for the government of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, told Cihan news agency that there is no such in base in the region, stressing that not even the KRG government is wiretapped. The spokesperson added the KRG has no information about the alleged wiretapping base in the region.