Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Çiftçi made statements regarding the agenda and answered questions on the Konv live broadcast in his hometown Konya, where he came as part of some contacts.
Emphasizing that the understanding and philosophy of duty is "people first", Çiftçi said, "In our civilization, the understanding of people first and then order is valid. In Western countries, this is changing a little. In Western countries, there is an understanding of order first and then people. That is why we sometimes see it in the approach and attitude of the police to people in the USA, or in France these days, they can sometimes act very brutally. Our approach is not like that. We say 'people first.' "he says." he said.
Referring to the Terror-Free Turkey process, Çiftçi said, "As the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we are following the process very sensitively and meticulously to ensure that the Terror-Free Turkey process is not disrupted. There is no bargaining here. There is no concession made against the terrorist organization. Here is the will of our state, our President. Hopefully, our country will have overcome the 50-year terror scourge. Because we have sacrificed many martyrs for this. The biggest success of the process is that there is no news of any martyrs for two years. Mothers are not crying, wives are widows." "The children do not remain orphans." he said.
"THEY SHOULD NOT THINK THAT BY RUNNING ABROAD THEY WILL SAVE IT FROM US"
Çiftçi stated that the fight against street gangs, new generation criminal organizations and drugs continues with determination.
Stating that they started a determined struggle to completely destroy these organizations and narrow their areas of activity, Çiftçi said:
"As of the end of September, we carried out 1741 operations against 625 criminal organizations against new generation criminal organizations. The number reached 1741 because we carried out more than one operation against some new generation criminal organizations. As a result, we ensured the arrest and sending to prison of 8 thousand 170 people. New generation criminal organizations do not only operate in Türkiye. When they get into trouble, they immediately flee abroad. I organized a visit to Bulgaria in this regard in the past months. Then I went to Georgia. I went and met with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. I was in Greece on Thursday. Our topic is all about security diplomacy, the new generation of criminal organizations and the places they hide abroad. No matter which country in the world they flee to, no matter where they hide, no matter what hole they enter, the powerful hand of our state will surely catch them where they escape. "They will find him, bring him to Türkiye, bring him to justice and answer for his actions before the Turkish judiciary."
Stating that he is considering visiting Germany and Italy in the coming days, Çiftçi said, "In the first 9 months of this year, we extradited 736 people from abroad. These people were people who committed crimes in Türkiye, fled abroad and thought they would escape from our hands there. We will increase this number even more with our visits and security diplomacy in the coming days. We will catch them all one by one and bring them to Türkiye." he said.
"DRUGS ARE NOT ONLY Türkiye'S PROBLEM, BUT THE WHOLE WORLD'S PROBLEM"
Stating that the new generation criminal organizations commit crimes in many areas such as drug trafficking, smuggling, irregular immigrants, fraud and public order crimes, Çiftçi said, "One of their financial sources is to continue their existence through the drug trade. Because the main source of their support is the illegal income they obtain from the drug trade. When we took office, we determined our second area of struggle as the fight against drugs. Drugs are not only the problem of Türkiye, but of the whole world. Because it directly concerns our future. They earn income from here, but at the same time they continue to poison our youth." "And we continue to fight as much as we can to cut off their financial resources." he said.
Ciftci pointed out that 35 thousand 819 people were arrested in 42 thousand 377 operations against drugs this year, and said that there are 432 thousand people in prisons in Türkiye, 36 percent of whom were convicted or arrested for drug crimes.
Ciftci pointed out that 39 tons of drugs and approximately 104 million synthetic drugs were seized as a result of the operations, and reported that 20.8 million Indian hemp roots were seized.
"OUR STATE NEVER VICTIMIZED ITS CITIZENS"
Çiftçi reminded that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated his will regarding the fund investigation and stated in a clear and definite language that "People who have obtained ill-gotten gains will be held accountable first in the Turkish courts and then in the Supreme Court" and said:
"A fund board has also been established under the chairmanship of our esteemed Vice President. The fund board continues its work. It should be stated here that no money will be paid from the state treasury or budget regarding this issue.' The money of the victims will be paid with the money obtained from those who made unfair profits and the funds received from the people who earned income from there. Our citizens should be comforted in this regard. Our state and our nation have overcome many difficulties so far. What we call fund victimization is not an area that concerns the entire fund markets. It concerns a limited area of 5 percent and concrete steps will be taken in the coming days. I also know that there is a legal regulation being prepared regarding this. A related law proposal will come to the Turkish Grand National Assembly next week. With him, the road map of this work will be a little clearer. Our state has never victimized its citizens. He won't do it from now on either. Hopefully, the grievances of those who suffered will be resolved, at least to a certain extent. "This will be done without using any resources of the state, the nation or the budget."
"ALL OF OUR HEARTS BROKE"
Ciftci, recalling the attacks in schools in Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, Manisa and Istanbul, continued as follows:
"This caused great outrage among our nation. The truth is that all of us were heartbroken. Because, as a nation, we are facing such incidents for the first time. We had heard about this before in America and Western countries, but such incidents had never occurred in Türkiye. These incidents started to occur in our country as well. After the attack in Kahramanmaraş, we carried out a close study on the measures to be taken in our Ministry of National Education. We even included our other ministries in this work and received their support. The day before the attack in Manisa, we signed a protocol with our Minister of National Education. All seven ministries signed it. Our intention there was, 'The measures we take regarding school security are not enough to prevent school attacks. So, what is needed? Our Ministry of National Education is already involved in this. Apart from that, if the child has an illness that needs to be treated, our Ministry of Family and Social Services should also be involved in this. Again, our Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Youth and Sports, that is, all the ministries, came together and signed a protocol with broad participation. In case of any leakage, the school administration, the law enforcement and the health department should intervene immediately, so that we can take the necessary precautions in time to avoid such sad events. I hope this will be effective in the coming days.
Calling on the families, Çiftçi said, "Now I am asking you, I am asking our people. This child can easily take this gun, his father's gun, put it in his bag and bring it to school? I mean, it is probably not the state or the police who will take care of the father's gun here. Isn't there a duty for our families here? Of course there is. In other words, they will put their guns in a place where their children cannot reach them. They will either put them in a locked cabinet or in a high place. So that the children cannot easily bring it. Taking care of the gun is a bit of controlling the children." "It must be the duty of families." he said.
Çiftçi stated that, as the Ministry, they have taken the necessary precautions to ensure that children can go to school and receive education in peace and return home safely after leaving school, and continued his words as follows:
"We are taking the necessary precautions in the school garden and outside the school. As you know, we have hired 31 thousand garden guards this year. Apart from this, we also assign our guards to the schools. We have patrols around the school, at the entrance and exit times of the school. Our public order practices, narcotic practices, security practices, and the practices of the juvenile branch continue. Apart from that, our controls continue in internet cafes, game halls and abandoned buildings. It will continue. From now on, we will increase our practices even more. But our schools are not a prison at the same time. Going back to the school attack, the 10th grader is wearing a black T-shirt over his school uniform. The reason is that the students of the school he will be attacking are also wearing black uniforms. Let's think about it like this: If we send 2-3 police officers to the entrance of the school, there are 1000 students there. How can they detect whether that child is from that school or from somewhere else? Our Ministry of National Education has a duty here. If our families do their part, our municipalities, other non-governmental organizations and other institutions of the state do their part, just like in narcotic crimes, I think our streets and schools will become safer. For example, we have a project called 'Compassion Shield'. We will explain this. There was a project that our Ministry of Internal Affairs implemented in the past called the Best Narcotic Police Mother. Because the mother is the first to notice the change in a child's behavior and actions. "Does he have a disease? Does the child behave normally? We have a similar project called Compassion Shield. We will put this project into practice in the coming days."
"THE NUMBER OF SYRIANS HAS CURRENTLY DECREASED TO 2.2 MILLION IN OUR COUNTRY"
Çiftçi stated that studies on irregular immigrants and the management of regular migration are continuing, and said that the migration policy is based on three basic principles: humanitarian, conscientious and legal.
Reminding that there were 3.7 million Syrians in Türkiye in 2021, Çiftçi said, "As of today, the number of Syrians has decreased to 2.2 million in our country. After the new administration came to power after the regime change in Syria on December 8, the number of safe voluntary and dignified returns from our country to Syria reached 755 thousand. Since 2016, 1.5 million Syrians have returned to their homeland. While we are trying to manage regular migration, we are fighting against irregular migration." "At the same time, we encourage the voluntary return of Syrians in our country or those from other countries." he said.
