Police chiefs of 40 provinces to be suspended with new decree law: Sources
Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA
Police chiefs from 40 Turkish provinces, along with a number of bureau chiefs, are to be suspended from their duties as part of a forthcoming decree law, expected to be launched with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s arrival in Turkey, aiming to clear Gülen-linked police chiefs from public posts, according to information obtained from sources. The forthcoming law is expected to target police chiefs with alleged links to the Gülenist organization and would add to the over 7,000 police officers who were previously suspended as part of the investigations carried out in the aftermath of the July 15 failed coup attempt.
Following the suspensions, over 2,000 police officers were dismissed from their positions.
Source have also claimed that there were four police bureau chiefs, two bureau deputy chiefs and a provincial police chief identified as allegedly having used the ByLock application, which was as a communication system allegedly used by around 180,000 Gülenists, according to recent findings.
In late August Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that the state obtained a list of 50,000 names which had allegedly used ByLock for inter-organizational communication among members of the outlawed group.
