In 2011, during the celebration of MİT's 85th anniversary of foundation, it was learnt that the institution owns a spy museum. The internal museum opened its door for the first time to the public in history in October 2013 upon request by a major Turkish daily.[citation needed] Only historical spying artifacts used between World War II and the end of Cold War were on display while contemporary "top-secret" labeled instruments remained still locked up.[1]
The instruments on display in glass cases, categorized as "technical documentation", consist of equipment for espionage techniques in voice (eavesdropping, call recording) and image processing (photograph, video frame) as well as monitoring (audio surveillance, wiretapping). The c.150 exhibited items include a voice-recording watch, a bug-hiding shoe wedge, a radio transmitter disguised as a personal weighing scale, holed iron bolts, soap and stone piece for hiding encrypted documents or codebook (block cipher) as well as various pieces of spying equipment in the form of utensils like pens, plug fuses, etc. Also bugs, detected in buildings of Turkish diplomatic missions abroad in the Cold War era between 1967 and 1989, are on display.[1] The information about at which operation or where that espionage equipment is used is kept still secret.[2]
