Security professionals from Central Asia and the Middle East train at Turkish academies
By: SÜLEYMAN ÖZEREN, Ph.D., and KAMIL YILMAZ, Ph.D./Guest AuthorS photos by International Center for terrorisim and transnational crime (UTSAM)
Turkey has a long history of combating terrorism and transnational crime. The Turkish National Police (TNP) run innovative training centers at which these problems are addressed from a regional perspective, with a heavy emphasis on participation from the Middle East and Central Asia. Two of the most important are the Turkish International Academy against Drugs and Organized Crime (TADOC) and the International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime (UTSAM).
Since its establishment, TADOC has held 721 training events with the participation of 22,892 law enforcement personnel from Turkey. But its impact has been much wider. It has implemented 380 international trainings with the participation of 6,844 law enforcement personnel from 86 countries. Many of these sessions include “mobile training” in which Turkish officials travel to other countries to train on site. This is especially beneficial because most TADOC training needs to be implemented in an environment familiar to the trainee. TADOC training is based on student-centered and constructive learning principles.
Participating countries include Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Police and security officials from Bahrain and Jordan have visited Turkey to learn and share techniques. Most often, training falls under the categories of crime intelligence analysis and counternarcotics investigations.
“I think that a key change can be seen through the different profiles of trainees we are seeing today to when we began the project,” TADOC Deputy Director Bahadır Küçükuysal said at an October 2013 meeting to help expand multinational training. “At the beginning, the trainees coming to our courses needed basic counternarcotics training more than anything else. But today more and more we see counternarcotics officers with a broad basis of experience, which require more specialized training courses which we are happy to provide. Overall this shows achievements in the development in regional capacity in recent years.”
Fighting Drugs and Organized Crime
Modern organized criminal groups employ complex and sophisticated methods, making the need for well-trained and well-equipped law enforcement agencies and agents greater than ever.
Based on a strong belief in international cooperation, Turkey has supported every initiative aimed at combating international drug trafficking. Strong cooperation is vital in achieving success in the fight against organized crime. With this understanding, TADOC was established in Ankara in June 2000 under the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime and within the framework of Turkey’s collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
TADOC is the leading training academy for the region and is referred to by the UNODC as a “Center of Excellence” with its programs and services regarded as best practices around the world. TADOC provides training to the law enforcement personnel from countries with which Turkey signed bilateral cooperation agreements and treaties.
Professional and skilled law enforcement personnel play a pivotal role in combating drugs and other forms of transnational crime. The key to having qualified personnel is training, which is the main instrument for capacity building and sustained learning. Therefore, TADOC has devoted significant efforts and resources to train high-quality personnel in the region.
TADOC is one of the best training centers in the world, offering basic and expert-level training in counternarcotics and fighting organized crime. As demand for TADOC training increases each year, TADOC successfully continues its mission to identify and meet the training needs of law enforcement agencies around the world. Reinforced by Turkey’s successful experience in the field, TADOC training reflects a harmonization of theory and practice. TADOC is also a significant contributor to training projects associated with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Economic Cooperation Organization, Black Sea Economic Cooperation, NATO-Russia Council, and the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific.
International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime
UTSAM was established in 2006 under the TNP Department of Research Centers. The TNP Academy, with its highly qualified and specialized team of researchers, merges theory with practice and generates information predominantly for policymakers, decision-makers and practitioners in fields such as terrorism, transnational crime, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, organized crime and cyber crime. Within this framework, UTSAM has improved cooperation with national and international research centers and security actors and organized numerous seminars, workshops, conferences and symposia. The Journal of International Security and Terrorism and other UTSAM publications contribute to the academic world of security sector professionals.
Turkey co-chairs the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF), launched in New York in September 2011. The GCTF consists of a strategic-level coordinating committee with two thematic and three regional expert-driven working groups. Turkey and the European Union (EU) are co-chairing the “Horn of Africa Region Capacity Building” working group, an effort to help reduce instability and extremism that has contributed to Indian Ocean piracy near places such as Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Turkey emphasizes the importance of the role of government institutions, agencies and civil society in countering violent extremism and prepared a memorandum on “Good Practices for a Multi-Sectoral Approach to Counter Violent Extremism.”
The Turkish National Police Academy
The Turkish National Police Academy started in 1937 with a one-year program for training police commanders. By 1984, it had developed into an official four-year bachelor’s degree institution of higher learning. In April 2001, the academy expanded into a police university that provides the option for police officers and police managers to become Turkish National Police through the Security Sciences Faculty, the Security Sciences Institutes and 27 Police Vocational Schools of Higher Education throughout the country. Police Vocational Schools of Higher Education train police officers toward an associate’s degree, the Security Sciences Faculty provides bachelor’s degrees, and the Security Sciences Institute offers opportunities for master’s degrees and doctorates.
From those beginnings, the TNP Academy has gone international. It has trained 1,085 police cadets from 20 countries since 1991, and hundreds more receive training at any one time. In 2010, the academy proposed the formation of the International Association of Police Academies (INTERPA) to further improve its international outreach and cultivate fruitful relations among police academies around the world. INTERPA was established the next year with 24 police academies or equivalent institutions from 22 countries participating. TNP Academy President Remzi Fındıklı, a professor, has been the president of INTERPA since its inception.
Members include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and the UAE. Also participating are several Asian, African and European countries, making INTERPA truly an international body.
King Fahd Security College in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2nd INTERPA Conference on Contemporary Issues in Police Education, Training and Research in April 2013. Nearly 200 participants from 36 countries attended, joined by representatives from INTERPOL, the Arab League and the Association of European Police Colleges.
Among the topics to be discussed at the 3rd INTERPA Conference in Malaysia in May 2014 is the establishment of an international police training center in Saudi Arabia to complement another in Turkey. The year 2014 also saw the publication of the first issue of the INTERPA E-Journal of Police Studies.
The Institute of Security Sciences was founded under the TNP Academy in 2002 with nine departments: forensic science, criminal justice, security strategies and administration, intelligence studies, crime studies, transportation security and management, international security, international security (in English), and international terrorism and transnational crime. There are nine master’s degree and two doctoral programs available at the institute.
The TNP Academy’s goal is to provide the Turkish National Police — and by extension its international partners – with the human resources to run graduate and other training programs, carry out scientific research, create publications and consult with other agencies on security issues. In training future police managers, the academy places special emphasis on respect for human rights and strives to maintain the highest possible standards by staying abreast of the latest technological developments.
Summary
Because of its geographical location and socio-political and economic conditions, Turkey has historically experienced high levels of transnational organized crime such as terrorism and drug smuggling. To fight these crimes, Turkey continuously strives to stay current on international practices and technological developments while maintaining a balance between security and individual rights and freedoms. At the center of these efforts, the country has placed special emphasis on international cooperation through the creation of these vital academies and research institutions.
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