WikiLeaks mega-leak exposes 300,000 docs of Turkey officials

After Turkey”s failed military coup, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of confidential documents belonging to APK, the Turkish ruling political party supporting president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The 300,000 emails and attached files come from akparti.org.tr, the primary web domain of the political group, and cover years of political conversations, with some as recent as July 6, 2016. One email contains a list with phone numbers of important APK members.

“The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup,” WikiLeaks said on its website. “WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government’s post-coup purges.”

A day before the disclosure, the organization teased people with an announcement on Twitter.

Expecting censorship from the Turkish government, WikiLeaks also asked the public to support their initiative and share the information via anonymous channels.

Before the release, the organization started experiencing what turned out to be a “24-hour cyber-war” that disrupted access to information.

Our infrastructure is under sustained attack,” WikiLeaks said on Twitter. “We are unsure of the true origin of the attack. The timing suggests a Turkish state power faction or its allies.”

Shortly after publishing the data, the database was censored nationwide in Turkey.

WikiLeaks says it is neither for or against the government and added that this is only the first part in a series of leaks that encompasses 762 mailboxes.