Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan is turning Turkey into a police state, by granting powers to the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and banning independent journalism and activism in the country. Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), under Erdogan’s leadership, is transforming Turkey into an authoritarian police state where the MIT act as Erdogan’s “Praetorian Guards”, notes independent scholar Dr. Can Erimtan. Sputniknews.com reports: “Last year, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (or AKP) took steps towards converting the Republic of Turkey into a just another typical Middle-Eastern ‘Mukhabarat state,’ a state where official intelligence services are busy keeping taps on the people while developing all kinds of nefarious cross-border activities embroiling the country in all kinds of dodgy affairs and/or relations,” Dr. Erimtan writes in his recent article for New Eastern Outlook. The scholar calls attention to Turkey’s legislation that provides MIT with sweeping powers. “The National Intelligence Organization has really been able to act with impunity since the adoption of Law Nr. 6532 [on April 26, 2014] with arbitrary phone tapping constituting but tip of the iceberg of its activities,” Erimtan notes. He adds that despite protests from Erdogan’s opposition Turkey’s Constitutional Court “all but upheld the organization’s status” after reviewing the controversial law. Erimtan emphasizes that commenting on the issue member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ahmet Toptas noted: “Our [...]