Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Çiftçi attended the 18th National Will Meeting program organized by the National Will Platform and the Turkish Voluntary Organizations Foundation (TGTV) in the building of the Turkish Youth and Education Service Foundation (TÜRGEV) in Eyüpsultan.
The program, attended by Istanbul Governor Davut Gül and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Turkish Voluntary Organizations Foundation Bilal Erdoğan, started with the recitation of the Holy Quran. Minister Çiftçi, who made a presentation on the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the program, gave information about security and public order activities, school security, the fight against organized crime organizations and the work carried out for the extradition of criminals who escaped abroad.
"WE STRIVE FOR THE CENTURY OF PEACE"
Providing information about the fields of activity and personnel structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Minister Çiftçi said, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs now serves our valuable people and citizens in every corner of Türkiye with its 700 thousand personnel, the General Directorate of Security, the Gendarmerie General Command, the Coast Guard Command, the Directorate of Immigration Management, AFAD Presidency, the General Directorate of Civil Society Relations, the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs, 81 provincial governorships and 922 organizations." he said.
Minister Çiftçi said, "As you know, I have been on duty since February 11, 2026. I started this duty with the appreciation and permission of our President. I have been performing this honorable duty for about seven months. In the Century of Turkey, we are striving for the Century of Peace within the framework of our President's vision of the Century of Turkey." he said.
"OUR NATION'S PEACE WILL DETERMINE OUR SUCCESS RECORD"
Referring to the security and public order activities of the Ministry, Minister Çiftçi said, "As the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we do not measure success only by the number of operations or the criminals we capture or the inspections we carry out. I express that the peace of our nation will determine our success report." he said.
Minister Çiftçi said, "While a total of 282 thousand 348 crimes were committed against individuals between 2021 and 2025, we see that the rate has decreased to 243 thousand since the day we took office. One of our most important goals is to reduce crime, thus increasing peace. When we make a comparison, we see that there is a decrease of 13.6 percent." he said.
64 THOUSAND 372 WEAPONS WERE SEIZED
Providing information about the fight against unlicensed weapons, Minister Çiftçi said that a total of 64 thousand 372 weapons have been seized since February 10 and 68 thousand 310 people have been prosecuted.
"IT SHOULD NO LONGER BE THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO TAKE CARE OF THE GUNS IN THE HOME"
Referring to school security, Minister Çiftçi said, "This year, our 7 ministries came together during the summer. We discussed how we can increase security in schools and on Monday, we signed a protocol with our Minister of National Education." he said. Minister Çiftçi said, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs or other state institutions will not take care of the father's gun at home. If there is a gun in our house, it should be kept in a place where children cannot reach it. It could be a safe or a locked cabinet. It should no longer be the duty of the state to protect the gun in the house. I think it would be more accurate if families do their part at this point." he said.
"I EVALUATE THAT THE GARDEN ATTENDANT APPLICATION SERVES ITS PURPOSE"
Referring to the measures taken in front of and around schools, Minister Çiftçi said, "In addition, I would like to thank our Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which we employed under the name of Garden Attendant, which we introduced this year. They gave us 31 thousand staff this year. We distributed them to the provinces." he said. Minister Çiftçi said, "One of the statements of the attacker in this week's school attack is as follows: 'I was actually going to carry out the attack at the school, but I carried it out outside the school because I knew that he was on duty at the school and was a guard.' he says. "I consider that this application also serves the purpose in this sense." he said.
"WE ARE GIVING THE MOST WEIGHT TO NEW GENERATION CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS"
Referring to the fight against organized crime, Minister Çiftçi said, "Currently, we have given the most weight to new generation criminal organizations. As a matter of fact, we have carried out 1,388 operations against 492 organized crime gangs this year. 19 of them are criminal organizations with international connections." he said.
Minister Çiftçi said, "There are organizations operating nationally and locally. We have increased operations this year to destroy them. Some of them even flee abroad when they are in trouble. We have also intensified our efforts to bring them back to our country." he said.
"WE FOLLOWED 640 ORGANIZED CRIMINAL SYSTEMS OR MEMBERS FROM 42 COUNTRIES"
Regarding the extradition of criminals who fled abroad to Türkiye, Minister Çiftçi said, "We do not abandon the pursuit of criminals who escaped abroad through Interpol. This year, we followed 640 leaders or members of organized crime organizations from 42 countries and ensured their extradition to our country. As of today, between January 1 and September 25, the number of them has reached 714 in total." he said. Minister Çiftçi said, "Hopefully, in the coming days, we will go to Greece, Germany and Italy and continue to follow them and ensure their extradition to our country." he said.
34 THOUSAND 349 OPERATIONS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS
Regarding the fight against drugs, Minister Çiftçi stated that 34 thousand 349 operations were carried out this year and 27 thousand 808 people were arrested. Minister Çiftçi noted that 113 thousand of the 432 thousand 643 people in penal institutions are in prison for drug crimes.
3 THOUSAND 675 OPERATIONS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CYBER CRIMES
Referring to the fight against cybercrime, Minister Çiftçi said that 3 thousand 675 operations were carried out this year, 15 thousand 111 people were detained and 7 thousand 798 of them were arrested. Minister Çiftçi stated that as a result of the cyber patrols carried out after the school attack in Kahramanmaraş, 2 thousand 119 people were detained and 243 of them were arrested.
"THERE IS A 15 PERCENT DECREASE IN FATAL ACCIDENTS"
Regarding traffic inspections, Minister Çiftçi stated that 102 million vehicles were inspected in 2025 and this number increased to 113 million this year. "If we take all traffic incidents into consideration, including motorcycles, while there were 1353 fatal accidents last year, we see that it decreased to 1153 this year. In other words, there is a 15 percent decrease in fatal accidents." he said.
Minister Çiftçi said, "There is also a decrease in the number of deaths, it corresponds to 15 percent. The average daily loss of life is an important indicator for us. While the average loss of life was 16.3 percent last year, we see that there is a slight decrease this year, a decrease of around 10 percent. Our goal is to further reduce the amount of this." he said. He stated that after the new traffic law came into force, there was a 93 percent decrease in scissoring crimes and a 52 percent decrease in the crime of not obeying the stop warning.
"WE WILL CONTINUE WORKING 7 DAYS 24 HOURS TO MAKE TURKEY'S CENTURY THE CENTURY OF PEACE"
Referring to the work carried out for the peace of Türkiye, Minister Çiftçi said, "We will strive to work day and night in line with the vision of our President's new Turkey Century framework for the peace of our citizens, the security of our cities, the protection of our borders, the future of our children, our cities resistant to disasters and strong social solidarity." he said.
Minister Çiftçi said, "Hopefully, we will continue to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with all our colleagues, to make the Turkish Century the century of peace, the century of safe cities, strong families, resilient society and peaceful Türkiye." he said.
"WE NEED MORE GUIDANCE FROM CIVIL SOCIETY IN POLITICS"
Speaking at the program, Bilal Erdoğan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Turkish Voluntary Organizations Foundation, touched upon the responsibilities that non-governmental organizations can undertake and said, "Considering the economic and social development of our country, we need more guidance from civil society in politics. We must produce better quality work in the areas in which we have expertise, in areas where our volunteerism and passion are high, and we have to guide and support decision makers with these." he said.
