Turkish gov’t reshuffles senior bureaucrats ahead of June election

ANKARA

The Turkish government has replaced a large number of senior bureaucrats, with a series of related decrees being published in the Official Gazette on March 6. The move comes just a few months before the parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on June 7.

Posts at the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), key departments in the Interior Ministry and the Transportation, Maritime and Communication Ministry, as well as the State Supervisory Council (DDK) under the Presidential Office, have all been subject to reshuffles.

According to one of the governmental decrees, Refik Turan, an academic at Ankara’s Gazi University, has been appointed as the new president of the TTK, a state body under the Higher Institution of Atatürk Culture, Language and History.

According to a second decree, also published early on the morning of March 6, Police Superintendent Hakan Çetinkaya at the Interior Ministry has been appointed as the new chief of the Muğla Police Department in southern Turkey.

Also at the Interior Ministry, the heads of the Department of Smuggling, Intelligence, Operation and Data Collection, the Directorate General of Provincial Administration, and the Department of Information Technologies, have all been reshuffled.

Mehmet Ali Özkılınç, a member of the DDK, has been appointed as the president of the Civil Inspection Board.

At the Transportation, Maritime and Communication Ministry the heads of the Directorate General of Communications and Department of Personnel and Training, as well as the director-general of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) and the director-general of the State Airports Authority of Turkey (DHMİ) have all been replaced.