A total of 69 high-level changes is made across police departments.
Türkiye’s Police Department has carried out a major reshuffle of provincial police chiefs, changing the heads of 39 of the country’s all 81 provincial police departments and reassigning 24 others to the central organization, according to a decree published in the Official Gazette on Sept. 18.
A total of 69 personnel changes were made across the central and provincial branches of the police force under the decree.
Among those reassigned to the central organization was Yalova Police Chief Yılmaz Delen, who previously served as Tunceli’s police chief when university student Gülistan Doku went missing in January 2020.
Delen was questioned as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Doku, who has not been heard from since Jan. 5, 2020. The investigation is also examining allegations involving former Tunceli
Governor Tuncay Sonel, who has been accused in the case of misconduct and attempting to influence judicial proceedings.
Kahramanmaraş Police Chief Hasan Yiğit was also among those reassigned to the central organization. His removal comes five months after a deadly shooting at a middle school in the province, in which nine students and a teacher were killed and 15 students were wounded. Yiğit was replaced by Bingöl Police Chief Beyti Kalaycı.
The April 15 attack at Ayser Çalık Middle School in Kahramanmaraş’s Onikişubat district was carried out by an eighth-grade student, who also died in the incident. Local media have linked Yiğit’s reassignment to the attack, although the decree itself does not give a reason for the personnel change.
