Another 25 police chiefs dismissed amid Turkey's graft probe

ANKARA

Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın (C) Dec 19 joined a long list of police officials dismissed from their posts. AA photo

The massive purge at the police department has extended to the lower ranks of the organization as 25 police heads in the Istanbul Police Department were displaced in the early hours of Dec. 22 amid the ongoing corruption investigation.

Twenty-four people have been formally arrested under the corruption investigation, including the sons of two government ministers and the general manager of state-owned Halkbank. 

In response, about 70 police officers, including the powerful head of Istanbul's force, have now been sacked or moved to different posts since the detention of bribery suspects began last week.

Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın Dec. 19 joined a long list of police officials dismissed from their posts, after two of his assistants, as well as four assistant chiefs, including chiefs involved in the execution of the probe targeting high-profile figures, were dismissed from their posts on Dec. 18.

Fourteen heads of police departments were discharged Dec. 20.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused "international groups" and "dark alliances" Dec. 21 of encouraging the graft investigations. Erdoğan has said the crackdown on people behind the corruption investigation would continue.

"Those who want to establish a parallel structure alongside the state, those who have infiltrated into the state institutions ... we will come into your lairs and we will lay out these organisations within the state," he said in a speech in the Black Sea province of Ordu.