US, UK spied on Turkey, report says citing Snowden

The United States and the United Kingdom have spied on Turkey, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel has reported, citing documents provided by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Documents, seen by the magazine and the online magazine Intercept, show that Turkey is one of the United States’ leading targets for spying and the political leadership in Washington has tasked the National Security Agency (NSA) with divining Turkey’s “leadership intention,” as well as monitoring its operations in 18 other key areas.

A document places Turkey at the level of Venezuela and even ahead of Cuba in terms of U.S. interest in intelligence collection, the report said. Information about the “leadership intention” of the Turkish government is given the second-highest priority rating, and information about the military and its infrastructure, foreign policy goals, and energy security are given the third-highest priority rating, it added. Beginning in 2006, the NSA began a broad surveillance operation aimed at infiltrating the computers of Turkey’s top political leaders.

Turkey summoned Germany’s ambassador in Ankara last month after media reports that Berlin had identified Ankara as a top target of surveillance in a government document from 2009 and had been spying on Turkey for years.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry described the report as “absolutely unacceptable,” if true.

The Snowden documents also show that Turkey is the NSA’s oldest partner in Asia. U.S. secret agents have provided support to the Turkish government in its battle against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for years. One top-secret NSA document from January 2007 said the agency provided Turkey with...