Turkey to recruit 20,000 new police in the coming period

Turkey will recruit 20,000 new police officers in the coming period and will deploy half of them to special forces units, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu told state-run broadcaster TRT on Friday.

Turkish authorities had announced they would strengthen the police force following a failed coup on July 15 in which pro-FETÖ soldiers commandeered fighter jets and tanks in an attempt to overthrow the government.

The FETÖ terror group leader Fetullah Gülen, who have been leading his worldwide terror network residing in Pennsylvania, US, since 1999, had moved his followers in Turkish military and civil institutes to take over the power.

But Turkish people along with police forces had foiled the attempt saving their democracy as more than 240 people were martyred and over 2,200 were injured on July 15, the darkest night of Turkish history.

Soylu also said administrators would be appointed to 28 municipalities.

Security officials and the state-run Anadolu agency on Thursday said the government was appointing administrators to replace current officials because of alleged support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists.

The PKK, also listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU, resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then, more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.