Greek Intelligence Declassifies Cold War Records on Türkiye and Regional Security
By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
Intelligence Archive Spans Menderes Era
The Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP) made 123 internal documents from 1953 to 1959 public on Wednesday. The release marks the first time the agency has opened files from the period when it operated as the Central Intelligence Service (KYP). The records detail the transition of Türkiye from a strategic NATO partner into a primary regional competitor.
Director of EYP Themistoklis Demiris stated the move aims to provide a transparent record of the post civil war climate. The documents include monthly intelligence bulletins, surveillance logs of political figures, and assessments of Turkish military capabilities during the administration of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.
Focus on 1955 Istanbul Events
A significant portion of the archive focuses on the September 1955 Istanbul Pogrom. Greek intelligence reports from that month describe the riots targeting the Greek minority as a turning point for bilateral relations. The bulletins include field reports on the role of the Turkish National Security Service (MAH), the predecessor to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), in the events.
The files indicate that Greek analysts began prioritizing the "Turkish threat" over Soviet containment following the 1955 violence. Analysts at the time tracked the emergence of the "Taksim" or partition ideology regarding Cyprus and monitored Turkish naval movements in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Surveillance of Minorities and Borders
The declassified material contains extensive reports on the Muslim minority in Western Thrace and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul. Intelligence officers used these populations as indicators for the broader state of diplomatic relations.
Reports from 1958 and 1959 show a surge in surveillance of Turkish officials visiting Northern Greece. The records also detail early friction over maritime limits and airspace, issues that remain central to the current geopolitical landscape in 2026. This release follows a similar declassification in late 2024 concerning the 1974 Cyprus crisis.
EYP Director Themistoklis Demiris described the archive as organised around two main categories. The first covers what was then treated as the communist threat, including assessments of Soviet bloc countries, surveillance of Greek nationals living or studying abroad, communist activity inside Greece, and conditions in prisons and places of exile. The second category, confirmed in Demiris's official statement, covers intelligence bulletins on "countries and regions of our immediate neighbourhood and standing national interest, namely the Balkans, Türkiye and the Middle East."
The period the documents cover, 1953 to 1959, spans the early years of KYP's operation, a time when the agency was modelled directly on the CIA and its agents received their salaries from Washington rather than the Greek state, a practice that continued until 1964. It also spans the years immediately following Greece and Türkiye's joint entry into NATO in 1952, when the two countries were formally allied against the Soviet threat while managing deepening tensions over Cyprus and the status of the Greek minority in İstanbul.
The specific content of the Türkiye related bulletins has not yet been reported in detail by Greek media. What EYP's official statement confirms is that the agency systematically collected, assessed and filed intelligence on Türkiye as a subject of standing national interest throughout this period, alongside its primary Cold War mandate.
Demiris said the release reflects the agency's aim to "gradually establish a regular and methodical declassification process" allowing historians and citizens to examine even difficult or contested periods "through the lens of the time." He added that efforts to locate and declassify further archival material covering the same period would continue.
The 2,000 page archive is available on the EYP website at eyp.gr.
***Information in this report is based on official documents released by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP) and public statements by its directorate.