Muddying The Waters

Screenshot, Star June 17, 2013 12:06 pm

While browsing the different ways that the daily newspapers were framing the ongoing events in Istanbul, I stumbled across a news article in the government leaning (if not mouthpiece) Star: "English Intelligence," the headline says, "Listened to [Finance] Minister Şimşek."

The article, drawing upon a report yesterday in the Guardian [original story here, an English-language version in Today's Zaman here], revealed that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spied on Turkish Finance Minister Şimşek and members of his delegation in 2009 during a G20 summit meeting in London. News reports today reveal that this was part of a larger project of spying on international delegations during the conference. It appears that this GCHQ project might be connected to the recently revealed NSA project as well. If so, it raises important questions about the troubling lack of oversight over these intelligence services and about the blurred boundaries of intelligence work today.

But there's an added dimension -- if these reports are true (as they seem to be), it's difficult to exaggerate just how much they will feed into the already swirling conspiracy rumors. The government is doing everything they can to frame the protests as a plot orchestrated by foreign agents. Even if there are a couple of well-intentioned protestors, they argue, those well-intentioned few have been exploited by foreign intelligence services and internal traitors intent on derailing Turkey's economic and political growth. Given the traditional role that England plays in these narratives, this is incredibly damaging -- indeed, the placement of the article on Star's website (below) suggests that these revelations have already been folded into the narrative of foreign provocation.

Screenshot, Star June 17 11:00 am

But it's also important to remember: Even though I'm by nature someone skeptical of explanations that mobilize conspiracies and international intrigues, it's precisely articles like this -- published in the English press -- that feed and help to "document" these plots. These rumors are not ungrounded -- indeed, what makes them so powerful is precisely their ability to be documented.