The National Security Service (, MEH, but known as MAH) was the governmental intelligence organization of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

between 1926 and 1965, when it was replaced by the

National Intelligence Organization loction 39°54'25.0"N 32°39'59.3"E The National Intelligence Organization (), also known by its Turkish language, Turkish initials MIT or MİT, or colloquially as the Organization (), is an intelligence agency of the Turkish government tasked ...

(, MİT).MAH
official MİT web site It was established at a time when

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

was purging

Committee of Union and Progress The Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, also translated as the Society of Union and Progress; , French language, French: ''Union et Progrès'') was a revolutionary group, secret society, and political party, active between 1889 and 1926 ...

elements, including the Karakol society and

Teşkilât-ı Mahsûsa The Special Organization (, abbreviated TM) was an Intelligence agency, intelligence, paramilitary, and secret police organization in the Ottoman Empire known for its key role in the commission of the Armenian genocide. Originally organized under ...

("Special Organization") intelligence organizations. The first director of the MAH was Şükrü Âli Ögel (1886–1973). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Turkey saw increased

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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, and

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operatives and sympathizers. The MAH learned that

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

would not attempt to invade Turkey, allowing the İnönü administration to resist mounting Allied pressure to declare war on Germany. The MAH would go on to receive significant financial support from the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

during the

Cold war The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

Directors

* Şükrü Âli Ögel (25 December 1926 – 7 July 1941) * Mehmet Naci Perkel (1 August 1941 – 3 September 1953) * Behçet Türkmen (September 3, 1953 – March 27, 1957) * Emin Çobanoğlu (27 March 1957 – 18 April 1957) * Ahmet Salih Korur (18 April 1957 – 23 September 1957) * Emin Çobanoğlu (23 September 1957 – 21 November 1957) * Hüseyin Avni Göktürk (November 21, 1957 – June 21 , 1959) * Ahmet Salih Korur (21 June 1959 – 2 October 1959) * Ahmet Celalettin Karasapan (2 October 1959 – 2 June 1960) * Ziya Selyshyk (June 3, 1960 – January 17, 1961) * Naci Ashkun (January 17, 1961 – August 18, 1962) * Mehmet Fuat Doğu (August 27, 1962 - August 25, 1964) * Ziya Selyshyk (29 August 1964 – 13 June 1965)

Notes

* The early Turkish government named the organization MAH, without expanding the acronym, so unauthorized persons would not be able to guess what the organization was responsible for. This gave rise to incorrect

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

s such as ''Millî Amale Hizmeti'' and ''Millî Asayiş Hizmeti''.

References

External links

Atatürk ve Milli Amale Hizmet

Mehmet Eymür Mehmet Eymür (5 September 1943 – 13 January 2024) was a Turkish intelligence official. In 1995–1996 he led the counter-terrorism department of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which he joined as a student in 1965 as a "pursuit of ...

(MİT official) Turkish intelligence agencies Defunct government agencies of Turkey {{Turkey-mil-stub Turkish nationalist organizations