ISTANBUL — The Turkish government removed police chiefs in 15 cities and the deputy head of the country’s police force, police said in a statement Wednesday.
The removals came after about 350 Turkish police officers in Ankara were reassigned to different positions Tuesday in the largest single purge of the police force since a corruption investigation plunged the government into crisis last month.
Police chiefs in Turkey’s leading cities, including Ankara, the capital; Adana, a southern town by the Syrian border; and Diyarbakir, the hub of the Kurdish heartland, were summoned to the headquarters of the police to be reassigned.
In Turkey’s largest Aegean city, Izmir, police officers were reshuffled Tuesday, almost immediately after they had detained 25 suspects, including progovernment businessmen, on corruption allegations over the construction and management of the city harbor, the private Dogan news agency reported.
In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government prepared a draft legislation to enhance its limited control over the High Council of the Judges and Prosecutors, a move which many analysts claim is aimed at intimidating prosecutors investigating graft complaints.
Analysts in Turkey saw the police dismissals as part of a continuing effort by Erdogan’s government to marginalize those it believes are driving the investigation. The government has already dismissed more than a dozen high-ranking police officials, prompting accusations of interference in the judicial process.
The intervention in the ranks of law enforcement for what appear to be political motives, analysts said, underlines Erdogan’s encroaching authoritarianism after nearly a decade in power, and his sense of panic ahead of pivotal local elections in March.
Once a darling of the West committed to linking Turkey’s future to the European Union, Erdogan has since sought to fashion Turkey as a regional power in the Middle East, while the EU’s influence in Turkey has waned.
“This is a panic attack by a government acting in haste to prevent further corruption probes,” said Kadri Gursel, a columnist for Milliyet, a Turkish daily.
The reshuffle Tuesday affected at least 80 directors and other senior officers in the intelligence, organized crime, fiscal crime, and cybercrime units of Ankara’s police force. Among those reassigned was Mahmut Azmaz, who led the antiriot police division that critics accused of using excessive force during antigovernment protests in June.
The officers were reassigned to traffic police departments and district stations, and about 250 replacement officers, mostly from outside Ankara, were appointed to take their place, the broadcaster NTV reported.