Turkish academy trains foreign police forces

By Serhat Zafer, Halife Yancinkaya and Sertac Bulur

SIVAS, Turkey (AA) - A police academy in Turkey's central Sivas province has been training candidates from various countries as part of cooperation agreements with their governments.

The Sivas Police Vocational School has trained 1,956 Afghan men and 1,027 women so far.

The sixth term of the Female Afghan National Police Training program for 243 candidates is ongoing.

The five-month program includes search techniques, traffic policing, basic driving training, crime scene investigating and collecting evidence, police rules and procedures, and police law. Juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and crimes against women are also being addressed.

Yilmaz Colak, head of the academy, said 5,300 Syrian police personnel have received training from the school.

Iraqi and Somali police forces will also be provided training, he added.

He said their aim was to become the leading country in police training. "We have made a considerable progress in this regard. Demands particularly from the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and Asia are indicative of this. We are already working very closely with Europe on EU projects."

Col. Razia Osmani of the Afghan police said: "Compared to Afghanistan, the training conditions are better here. Turkey provides the most suitable environment for women police candidates."