Turkey to close down police academies

The Turkish government last week made a decision to perform an administrative reform of revolutionary proportions: closing the country’s police academies and training schools, which have become the stronghold of Gulenists.

Under the plan, which comes as part of efforts to purge Gulenists entrenched in the state, Turkey’s security establishment will undergo a fundamental overhaul. The Police Academy’s Security Units Institute, which trains senior police cadres, is to be shut down and replaced with a Police Commanders Training Center. The Police Academy itself will be completely dismantled over time. The plan will also affect police vocational colleges, which are to be transformed to police vocational training centers. The Sabah newspaper reported the plan as “closing down the dens of malice.”