Turkey To Help Ghana Smoke Out Hackers

The Turkish government has expressed concern about the recent hacking of 11 websites of the Government of Ghana and called for collaboration to fight cyber crime.

Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Nesrin Bayazit, said the sad event was indicative of the need for the two countries to work towards ensuring cyber security.

A Turkish group recently hacked into the websites of the Ghana government which remained shut for nearly 48 hours.

A self-described nationalist Turkish hacker group which calls itself Alsancak Tim hacked into 11 of Ghana Government's websites, including its main site.

According to a Facebook post, the hacked websites included links to other hacked websites and mirrors of the hacked sites hosted on defacement archives.

Ms Bayazit was speaking to journalists after holding a closed-door meeting with the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, at the Flagstaff House yesterday.

She stated that a cyber response team in Turkey was willing to work with their Ghanaian counterparts to expose the culprits.

Touching on Turkey's support for Ghana, Ms Bayazit said Ghana and Turkey enjoyed a close relationship which was further deepened by the official visit of the former Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, to Ghana in March 2011.

The ambassador enumerated a number of Turkey-sponsored projects in Ghana, including a water treatment project at Achimota and commended the leadership style of President John Mahama and his commitment to spearhead peace in the sub-region, as well as his role in the fight against the Ebola virus.

Bilateral trade volume between Ghana and Turkey amounted to $175 million in 2009 and increased to $290 million in 2010. That made Ghana Turkey's third largest trade partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria.

Also enhancing the relationship between the two countries is the establishment of direct flights by Turkish Airlines between Istanbul and Accra via Lagos since July 2011.

Following a memorandum of understanding signed between the Council of Foreign Economic Relations of Turkey and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry in July 2010, the Turkey-Ghana Business Council was officially established during President Gül's visit to Ghana.

Earlier, Mr Amissah-Arthur said the government was prepared for a closer working relationship with the Turkish government in all sectors to help improve the socio-economic lives of their peoples.

He noted that Ghana would continue to extend a hand of friendship to its development partners in the supreme interest of promoting South-South cooperation.