Interior Ministry planning to dismiss all reassigned police officers

Having conducted a sweeping purge in the police force resulting in the reassignment of nearly 15,000 police officers since a major corruption and bribery probe became public on Dec. 17 of last year, the Interior Ministry is now preparing to dismiss the reassigned officers in the upcoming weeks, sources close to the ministry claim.

The sources, who preferred to remain anonymous due to security concerns, told Today's Zaman that the Interior Ministry is planning to launch a new initiative in which it will dismiss all reassigned police officers from their posts over the next few weeks. The police officers had been reassigned on the grounds that they were linked to the faith-based Hizmet movement, inspired by the principles of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. The government has launched a large-scale defamation campaign against the movement, which it has accused of being behind the Dec. 17 corruption scandal.

After 400 reassigned police officers -- including former Police Chief Ramazan Akyürek, who served as head of the National Police Department's intelligence unit, former Muş Police Department Chief Muharrem Durmaz and Hami Güney, formerly deputy chief of the Ankara Police Department -- were dismissed from their posts recently, the sources revealed that the ministry has also prepared a new 1,000-person dismissal list on the orders of Interior Minister Efkan Ala. The ministry has already approved the list and sent it to the National Police Department's personnel department and is planning to dismiss those on the list over the next few weeks. Among those 1,000 included in the list were officers who were colleagues of Akyürek, Durmaz and Güney.

The sources also say that the ministry is planning to dismiss those reassigned police officers on the charge of engaging in illegal wiretapping activities during crucial investigations, leaking or destroying some important data, misconduct and acquiring information through illegal means.

In January, Akyürek was removed from his post at the National Police Department Inspection Board and reassigned to a lower post. Akyürek challenged the reassignment and an Ankara administrative court recently approved his appeal; it did not consider the reassignment of Akyürek legal and decided to overturn his reassignment. However, he was later dismissed from his post completely by the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry allegedly appointed police inspectors to uncover police officers who are close to the Hizmet movement. The inspectors who are considered successful by the ministry are appointed to high-ranking positions. So far, four of those inspectors have been appointed as chiefs of police departments and four have been appointed chiefs of various police units.

The sources also say that the number of police officers who have been reassigned since the corruption scandal has reached 15,000 and this number is expected to reach 20,000 by the summer.

Nearly 15,000 police officers from across the country have been reassigned since December of last year in an extensive purge of the police force. The reassignments came after revelations about a corruption and bribery investigation came to public attention, implicating four government ministers, state bureaucrats and several prominent businessmen close to the government. The government has also replaced the prosecutors who initiated the probe as well as other public prosecutors and dozens of officials at various state institutions.

The purges are thought to be an attempt to remove those the government believes are members of the Hizmet movement from public sector jobs.

The suspects in the probe -- sons of former ministers, well-known businessmen and bureaucrats, among others -- are accused of rigging state tenders, accepting and facilitating bribes for major urbanization projects, obtaining construction permits for protected areas in exchange for money, helping foreigners to obtain Turkish citizenship through falsified documents and involvement in export fraud, forgery of documents and gold smuggling.

Published on Today's Zaman, 01 April 2014, Tuesday