Telecommunications interception in Turkey: rights to privacy vs. discourses of security

Resumen: The paper discusses telecommunication interceptions in Turkey as a state surveilling itself as well as its citizens. While surveillance of state officials including the judiciary indicates a perception of threat from inside the state, these perceptions overlap with the `deep state¿ phenomenon in Turkey. Despite the 2005 legal reforms which introduce strict legal standards for communications surveillance, current political developments reveal that wiretapping remains as a commonly used micro-power application. The paper, by utilizing Foucault¿s theory, aims to uncover the `conditions of possibility¿ for the use of this disciplinary technique in Turkey with a certain focus on the actual power relations and discourses of truth.