ANKARA
A chief public prosecutor in the Turkish capital of Ankara has launched an espionage probe into country's official telecommunications authority.
The investigation comes amid claims that important and sensitive information stored by the authority had been transmitted abroad.
"The decision to launch a probe has been made following several news reports in the Turkish media that the data archive of The Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication has been completely erased after being transmitted to foreign countries via satellite," read a written statement issued on Wednesday by the chief public prosecutor's office.
"According to these news reports, before the archive was erased, it was copied, taken out of the building, handed over to third parties and stored. During this process, all digital records and logs prior to 2012 were also erased," the statement said.
"The reports further claim that the transfer and transmission of important and sensitive information, and their subsequent deletion have been made for espionage purposes. Therefore, the chief public prosecutor has launched a probe in order to investigate these claims," it concluded.
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