By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The bizarre world that churns inside Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s presidential palace reached a new zenith with the unveiling of surveillance control rooms inside, giving him unprecedented ability to personally spy on seventy seven million Turkish citizens. In a feat of technical engineering rivaling that of George Orwell’s Big Brother, the president will certainly enjoy the spectacle of his new spyglass.
According to Al-Monitor, the system has 143 displays that allow President Erdogan to tap into closed-circuit television systems in the streets of eighty one of Turkey’s provinces along with its government’s Mobile Electronic System Integration (MOBESE) and those used in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
With the system about to become live, Erdogan will now be able to personally watch all public demonstrations, city life, military and police operations, and other events he finds of concern.
The system is not limited to just government operated video systems, the control center is wired to monitor cellular 3G traffic and television broadcasts, the Gendarmerie, the Disasters and Emergencies Management Directive, Information and Technologies Authority (BTK), and the intelligence services.
Erdogan’s palace also maintains a junior varsity version of the NSA with three massive servers storing all MOBESE data archives. A workstation is set up by the BTK will permit the unfettered access to all data. Military operations can be transferred from the Chief of Staff’s Operations Bureau to the White Palace.
Erdogan also directed that the Crisis Management Center at the country’s Prime Ministry be tapped to transfer operations directly to his control center.
President Erdogan shows almost complete intolerance of dissent or questioning and is known for his hostility to the internet and various freedoms of expression enjoyed by Turkey’s citizenry; yet his need for complete surveillance in every corner of government and the lives of all individuals borders on the pathological and in many respects paranoia. He is showing many of the hallmarks of a transition into a dictator increasingly driven by narcissism, intolerance and an underlying fear perhaps of overthrow.
He seems to have a nostalgic dream of the grand days of the Ottoman Empire merged with a complete surveillance apparatus and full integration into the fabric of Turkish Society. His world is one where a single person writing a text message on Twitter or SMS is something that should be scrutinized personally. Every street corner must be watched; every Donner Kebab shop is suspicious. Control is most certainly his goal.
By Darren Smith
Source: Al-Monitor Online
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Reblogged this on MANY PROPHETIC CLUES WARN US – THIS WORLD'S FINAL 3.5 YEARS ARE FROM JUNE 2016 TO DECEMBER 2019 and commented:
Erdogan’s transition to dictatorship (and to Islam) seems to be proving my interpretation of Nostradamus on Turkey – that it will cease to be a moderate ally of America, and shift towards the Islamic fundamentalists of Iran. Russian and Arab animosity towards Turkey had also led it to be an ally of Israel, but Bible prophecy makes it clear Turkey will be an end times enemy of Israel. Consider reading – Antichrist 2016-2019: Mystery Babylon, Barack Obama & the Islamic Caliphate
Mespo727272 …. I get the parliamentary system part and they did try our “Presidential System” a while back and quickly reverted back to their own system…and the chaos of 25 or so parties. Do the Brits have 25 or so parties? I actually do not know…and haven’t researched Brit politics much.
A flaw in the Israeli systen, readily admitted by the Israelis I know, is that with all those Knesset seats, not one is a elected “representative” of a given district or zone or population center. In short, if an Israeli has an issue, she or he had best “know someone” in power…there is no dedicated representation.
The dedicated representation is a strong feature of our system…in fact, the best Congressmen and women represent their districts very well most of the time…my best experience was with the representation (twice) provided by a Congressman with whom I’d likely agree with nearly nothing…but he stood up and entertained my complaint and acted to remedy it…successfully. That man was Congressman John Conyers Jr. Go figure, eh? He has my forever respect, all politics aside.
Ari:
They have a parliamentary democracy similar to Great Britain’s. it’s not inimical to ours and, as you know, at our founding political parties were nonexistent or in only the formative stages. We relied on the good faith of politicians to gett hings done for centuries. Now not so much.
Mespo…I commented on an Israeli site that I am beginning, however slowly, to understand their chaotic system. Among the reasons is the feature that requires calling for new elections periodically….and post election, forming coalitions from some 25 parties. They do not have the bi-carmel gridlock we seem to be immersed in today. I’m not ready to say, yes, let’s try that….but I do “get” the benefits in general…e.g., they do not have to endure pedantic executive jerks for 4 to 8 years, in the administration nor in the Knesset. It does seem more representative of Joe Sixpack….no one gets to be the big dog, in the administration or the parliament, for 8 years nor the legislature leaders forever, if you will….it is their ability to form a coalition that matters…and extends their terms, repeatedly when it occurs. We couldn’t’ form a coalition of our parties even at gun point. That cannot be good for us.
Aridog
We couldn’t’ form a coalition of our parties even at gun point. That cannot be good for us.
“All we like sheep have turned astray, we have turned to his own way”
We have forgotten our roots………….
Well, Nick, you’ve said you’re christian and you certainly see the world in black and white with libertarian dogma as your guiding star. You worship at the anti-duopoly altar and are willing to savage men and women alike in defense of your silly propositions. I’d say that makes you a fundie.
Paul C ….that ignorance as criteria only applies to SES, or military rank equivalents, and higher. Ordinary soldiers and DOD “Feds” are required to demonstrate skill sets appropriate for the next position. Even sergeants have to meet this criteria. The “rule makers” apparently do not in general. I’ve known SES level personnel who had real skill sets…but the ratio of them is roughly 1 : 10. As far as me being “their trainer”…perhaps, that might be because of my permanent NCO mindset….e.g., we were only required to perform this task for 2nd Lieutenants (Butter Bars) which seemed reasonable and went on to make some great platoon leaders…when they listened. Most did, since they were as scared as the rest of us and liked living.
Correction: where I said “…and review redacted …” it was supposed to read “…and review redacted manning documents…” which was why I cited PPI information as outside the “facility inspectors” need to know…e.g., no need to know individual names, salaries, and personal information. which fall under both FOUO and Classified Need to Know categories restricted to those with an actual need to know….examination of buildings and structures doesn’t meet that standard….which at best only requires authorized populations for a given space per person calculation….which the clown got wrong anyway due to math deficiencies and AutoCAD / Microstation ignorance.
The required criteria is 162 sf per person, with a critical level of 178 sf person, where a reduction plan is required, and with his messed up report, that office was above the 178 sf level…corrected to actual, by reading blueprints and the redacted manning documents, to the 131 level that it really is today.
Idiot bureaucrats really can cause problems and spurious expenditures. Idiot child gave it his best 🙂
Issac …one reason I reacted negatively to your “Ego” presumption is that in my experience, both in uniform and as a DOD “Fed” I found the worker bees (soldiers LTC and below, and civil servants GS-14 and below), to be people without silly ego issues (who actually tried hard to work with people foreign & domestic to meet the alleged goals, ….those “ego” issues are reserved to the senior bureaucrat levels of uber clerks, both “Pentagon Rangers” and the SES & Cabinet Secretary “managers” (few positive exceptions, but some), with little and usually no field experience….and very little functionally oriented work to do, so they have way too much time to dream up new expansionist bureaucratic schemes. You might not agree with me, but know that I’ve worked in the belly of the beast and witnessed it all.
A recent classic example, that I consulted on, was a week long “inspection” by a devised idiot layer who sent a guy to examine facilities (land, buildings, and infrastructure) to my old office…and this “inspector” could NOT read a simple blue print or manning document, let alone get the 3rd grade arithmetic correct from invoices for leased facilities. My role was to convert multiple AutoCAD drawings to “PDF” files ( to aid the mentally challenged dude), correct his math, and review redacted (for PPI infomation…nothing that fit his “need to know” security role) just to prove his “report” was hogwash and force correction by his bosses.
I’ll shut up now, but I could go on much longer with examples of how spurious bureaucracy is detrimental to efficiency and fiscal sanity.
Aridog – I thought you were not required to know what you were doing when going from one job to the next. You get OJT. In this case you were the training officer
Ari, Interesting take on who’s in charge. It is certainly a symbiotic relationship between politicians and career bureaucrats.
BTW…the DHS was first formed under the guise of “reorganization.” I’ve remarked before that Congress should pass a law that forbids any re-0
organization of departments and agencies in less than 10 years, and then only with detailed rational reasons for the action. No “new” agencies without triple the supporting justification…maybe prohibited in less than 20 years. That removal of spurious “reorganizations” would save billions all by itself.
Nick said …
They are errand boy/girls for politicians.
I get your idea. It is exactly what they want you/us to think. However, I’d disagree…the politicians are the errand boys & girls for the institutionalized senior bureaucrats….of the appointed SES and higher. They go to Washington young and never leave and coerce the politicians to adapt like some chameleons due to color variations and habitat. The institutional bureaucrats ARE the habitat.
I am not a Bush basher, far from it, however, two of the worst examples of arrogant “permanent” bureaucrats were/are Cheney and Rumsfeld. Both began in the Nixon White House. Coincidently, I know someone (cited here before) who experienced their wrath for simply demanding they abide the law (48 CFR and supporting legislation), saying so in writing, and not backing down.
The “reach” of the Cheney crew is demonstrated in the Wiki page for this individual I know, now down to a half page of spurious details, with all of the full story removed…even down to the penned in objections in the margins in the official contract document (a practice akin to a “signing document” in federal acquisition) objected to in the first place…which is what got her demoted and shuffled off to a inconsequential position…from which she had to sue to win her legitimate SES back pay (she won that suit) with the understanding she’d retire.
BTW, I am a periodic contributer to Wikipedia and I have written them a couple of times asking about how that person’s page was so diluted from the original honest & detailed one….so far, “crickets” is the response. My opinion now of Wiki is that at best, their information, due to biased editing, no more than 70% of less accurate.
Finally, I do not believe for a millisecond that G W Bush dreamed up the Orwellian”Department of Homeland Security” that created an immense new bureaucratic layer above and beyond that of the agencies it absorbed..all who originally had cabinet level executives who were under the direct command and control of the POTUS … e.g., G.W. Bush should have been able to call them all together or one by one and advised, if you do not follow my orders to cooperate 100% with each other, you are summarily fired. It was Bush advisors and handlers who designed the DHS…whihc has no gone on to create even more layers of redundant bureaucracy such as the new and expanded FEMA, once an office of emergency fund distribution and management who keep close accounting tabs on the spending by first responders (of which I was one many times) … that has expanded to their own crew of responders and established an huge contracting branch when none was needed, given GSA, DLA, and USACE (nor was it within the ordinary law under Part 8, 48 CFR and Part 208 DFARS) had handled contracting for response material & materials well for decades.
In short, Obama’s “phone & pen” diktats followed those of Bush & predecessors, all due to idiotic guidance IMO by entrenched paragons of DC…so say it nicely. If and when Congress takes back its Constituional powers and politicians run on principle and bring their own new</i) advisors and managers to DC, not re-cycle the old hands, we may have a chance yet. I am not holding my breath, but I can wish…