ANKARA
Two Turkish citizens working for the governmental telecom watchdog TIB were arrested in Ankara on Thursday for allegedly spying on Turkish state officials.
An Ankara prosecutor ordered the arrest of communications expert Hamza Demirezen and database coordinator Halil Cicek for allegedly "being members of a terrorist organization" and "blocking and corrupting IT systems and destroying or altering data."
In the indictment, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, PM Ahmet Davutoglu, several ministers, as well as Chief of Staff Necdet Ozel and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan are cited among the injured parties.
The suspects are accused of "targeting the unity of the state" and "political and military espionage,” among other charges.
The indictment says that the suspects eavesdropped on both "normal and encrypted" phones of state officials.
Government officials have accused a "parallel state" -- said to be made of followers of U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen -- of attempting to overthrow the government through graft investigations in December 2013 which targeted statesmen, including Cabinet members and high-profile businessmen.
The investigations, which the government considers a "coup attempt," were based on wiretapping recordings of phone conversations and confidential meetings of government officials.
Later recordings which were leaked online included private family conversations of then Prime Minister Erdogan and a top-level security meeting attended by then Foreign Minister Davutoglu and Chief of Staff Ozel.
