Turkey, Russia and South Africa have reacted furiously to recent revelations that the British government joined US\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s NSA and Canada\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s security agency to spy on their senior officials during London\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s G20 summit in 2009.\n<\/p>\n
Turkish foreign ministry described as \u00c5\u201cunacceptable\u201d the British government\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s interception of phone calls and monitoring of the computers of the country\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Finance Minister Mehmet \u00c5\u017eim\u00c5\u00b8ek and nearly 15 members of his delegation to the London summit and added that the eavesdropping effort on a NATO ally would be \u00c5\u201cscandalous\u201d if confirmed, media outlets reported on Monday and Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
The Foreign Ministry in Ankara further summoned the British ambassador to Turkey to convey the government\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s angry reaction.\n<\/p>\n
“The allegations in the Guardian<\/i> are very worrying \u2026 If these allegations are true, this is going to be scandalous for the UK. At a time when international co-operation depends on mutual trust, respect and transparency, such behavior by an allied country is unacceptable,” said a foreign ministry spokesman in Ankara in an official statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The development comes as the UK-based Guardian<\/i> newspaper revealed that the British secret wiretapping agency, GCHQ, targeted the Turkish finance minister during a G20 economics meeting hosted in London in September 2009. It also contemplated on bugging the communications of 15 named members of the minister\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s staff and of Turkey’s central bank. <\/p>\n
The aim of the spying operation was to collect information about the Turkish position on the reform of the global financial infrastructure amid the world banking crisis.\n<\/p>\n
Moreover, South Africa\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s foreign ministry, which was targeted by the GCHQ hacking operation in 2005 as well, also voiced concern over the British spying effort, demanding an \u00c5\u201cinvestigation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
“We do not yet have the full benefit of details reported on but in principle we would condemn the abuse of privacy and basic human rights particularly if it emanates from those who claim to be democrats,” said a foreign ministry statement in Pretoria.\n<\/p>\n
“We have solid, strong and cordial relations with the United Kingdom and would call on their government to investigate this matter fully with a view to take strong and visible action against any perpetrators,” the statement reportedly added.\n<\/p>\n
In Moscow, meanwhile, Russian authorities emphasized that the reported interception of top-secret communication of then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at London\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s 2009 G20 summit by US spies would further damage the already tense US-Russia ties and cast a shadow over the on-going G8 summit in Northern Ireland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Details of the spying operation, outlined in a briefing prepared by the American National Security Agency (NSA), were leaked to the press by the spy agency\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s whistleblower Edward Snowden and reported by the Guardian<\/i> on Sunday. <\/p>\n
The leaked documents demonstrated that American intelligence operatives in Britain spied on Medvedev, who was the Russian president at the time and is now the country\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s prime minister.\n<\/p>\n
Some of the documents posted on the Guardian\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s<\/i> Web site contained the logos of the NSA and Canada\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s security agency, suggesting that at least a portion of the spying effort were part of joint or shared operations. The documents further show that the British were provided with intelligence by the NSA, which was reportedly conducting its own eavesdropping operation on Medvedev.\n<\/p>\n
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