ANKARA
Turkey's government's spokesperson Bulent Arinc on Monday described as "illegal" prosecutors' requests and court orders for the wiretapping of senior government officials.
Arinc claims the wiretapping was conducted by a "parallel state" which allegedly has links within Turkey's police force and judiciary.
"Right now I am only speaking on the information we have been able to receive from a file prepared by two prosecutors. All these (wiretapping) requests and (court) orders are completely illegal," he said.
The Turkish dailies published a list of ‘victims of illegal wiretapping’ on Monday, which is reported to amount to around 7,000 people from different political spectrums - including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and at least one of his ministers as well as a number of journalists, academics, business leaders and civil society representatives.
Arinc said an investigation was underway into the claims of wiretapping of government officials.
"Once the investigation is completed, we will be able to share who did it, and why," he said.
Adding that the phone conversations of Anadolu Agency employees have also been wiretapped, Arinc said that every staff member who has been wiretapped deserves an apology.
Arinc also said that these recent developments justify once more the amendments, passed by the Turkish parliament, to the law governing the country's top judicial body, HSYK.
"This proves once more how important and justified the amendments to the HSYK Law are," he said.
The wiretapping allegations first erupted after Turkey’s intelligence agency, MIT, found bugs in Prime Minister Erdogan’s office in 2012.
Monday's allegations and the published list are part of an ongoing political struggle that was sparked on December 17 between the Turkish government and a movement headed by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, following an anti-graft probe, which led to high-profile arrests.
"Parallel state" is referred to describe a 'state within state' associated with the Gulen or 'Hizmet' movement.
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