The National Security Service (Turkish: Milli Emniyet Hizmeti, or MAH¶) was the governmental intelligence organization of Turkey between 1926 and 1965, when it was replaced by the National Intelligence Organization (Turkish: Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı, MİT).
It was established at a time when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was purging Union and Progress elements, including the Sentinel Association and the Teşkilât-ı Mahsûsa intelligence organizations. The first director of the MAH was M. Şükrü Âli Ögel.
During World War II, Turkey saw increased espionage by British, Soviet and German operatives and sympathizers. The MAH learned that the Germany would not attempt to invade Turkey, allowing the İnönü administration to resist mounting Allied pressure to declare war on Germany. (British efforts to get Turkey as an ally against Germany are a central element of Eric Ambler's classic spy thriller Journey Into Fear, published in 1940, in which a fictional head of the MAH, Colonel Haki, plays an important role.)
The MAH received financial support from the CIA.
Famous quotes containing the words national, security and/or service:
“Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores; let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God’s right to come.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)