Counterterrorism units to join fight against rising gang threat

ANKARA

Türkiye will expand the role of its counterterrorism units to help tackle the country’s growing problem with organized crime syndicates, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said on Aug. 18.

“From now on, our security units’ Counterterrorism Departments will also be tasked with combating ‘new-generation’ organized crime groups,” Çiftçi told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The groups Türkiye describes as “new-generation crime organizations” differ from common mafia problems in several ways, including their extensive use of social media and the younger ages of their members.

The groups seek to lure children into their networks by promising money, status, visibility and a false sense of belonging, while exploiting their young age and lack of experience.

Çiftçi said some methods used by terrorist organizations to disrupt public order, create fear and draw children and young people into their structures are also being seen among new-generation criminal groups.

“Their aims and legal characteristics are not the same, but there are similarities in terms of the social harm they cause that we cannot ignore,” Çiftçi said.

Çiftçi stressed that counterterrorism units have significant institutional experience in monitoring, analyzing and dismantling organized structures, adding that this expertise would also be used against emerging criminal networks.

He said security agencies would make more integrated use of their respective capabilities under the new approach.

“The issue is not simply which unit deals with which crime, but how we can use the security capacity available to our state most effectively against changing criminal structures,” Çiftçi said.

“If the criminal structure we face is changing, our methods of combating it must also evolve accordingly.”

Reminding that his ministry declared 2026 a special year for combating this type of gangs, the minister noted that in the first seven months of the year, authorities carried out a total of 1,445 operations targeting 518 gangs.

The operations led to the arrests of 6,320 gang members, he added.