Police Chiefs Asked Irrelevant Questions On Exam To Get Promotion

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, which is accused of having launched a witch hunt in the police force following the eruption of a corruption scandal in December 2013, has changed the way police chiefs are promoted, requiring the chiefs to pass a written and oral exam, during which they are asked questions that are irrelevant to their profession.

The National Police Department has pressed ahead with changes to the system of promotion for police chiefs. Previously, police officers would be promoted to a higher rank every three years without the requirement of an exam, as long as there were neither an investigation against them nor any punishment preventing their promotion.

Last week, police chiefs from the country's 81 provinces travelled to Ankara to take a written and an oral exam in the hope of getting a promotion; however, they were surprised by the questions they found on the exam.

A majority of the questions were from high school textbooks and unrelated to their profession. The police officers were asked questions such as: “What is photosynthesis? What is mitotic division? What is Protestantism? What was the period of the Renaissance and Reformation? Who is Gorbachev?” and, “What was the Magna Carta?”

Most of the police chiefs who took the exam were opposed to being asked such questions, while security sources have said that a written or oral exam cannot assess the professional performance of a police chief, explaining that the exams are only for show, being used by the government to promote pro-government figures in the police force and prevent the promotion of police chiefs who may be linked to the faith-based Gülen movement.

The campaign against the police was launched by the AK Party government after corruption and bribery operations implicating senior government figures went public on Dec. 17 and 25, 2013. The government says the operations were orchestrated by the Gülen movement, which allegedly seeks to overthrow the government. According to the government, the movement has members, or "agents," in the police force. The Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, denies the accusations and the government has so far shown no evidence to back its claims. By sponsoring several waves of anti-police operations, the government hopes to “clear the police force of Gülen movement members.”

Following the written exam, the police chiefs also took an oral examination in the presence of a five-member board that included the undersecretary to the Interior Ministry and the deputy undersecretary, as well as senior police force administrators. The questions asked during the oral examination were also irrelevant to their profession. They were asked questions such as: “What is the name of the wife of Louis XVI who was executed? What is the Neolithic era? What are the benefits of recycling? What is your biggest goal in life?”

Passing the written exam is not enough to earn a promotion. If a police chief gets 90 points on the written exam and less than 50 points on the oral exam, he or she cannot be promoted. The results of either exam have not been announced yet.

The board members have also been presented with an intelligence report about each police chief who seeks a promotion. The reports, presented by the National Police Department's intelligence unit, will apparently be used to eliminate police chiefs who are said to be members of the Gülen movement.

The board, which will give the final decision about the promotions, will also be able to determine the date of retirement of certain police chiefs who have completed the required number of days in the service. Police sources estimate that between 250 and 400 police chiefs may be subjected to forced retirement.

In the meantime, the deputy head of the Security Unit of the National Police Department, Saruhan Kızılay, the deputy head of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the National Police Department, Ahmet Sula and the deputy head of the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau (KOM), Akın Zaimoğlu, along with deputy heads of other units, also took the written exam in Ankara, according to reports.

The names of Kızılay and Zaimoğlu came to public attention after they were implicated in ongoing cases, but their names were later removed.

Ercan Taştekin, the head of the Research Center for Security Strategies (GÜSAM) and a former police chief, has voiced criticism about the new system of promotion, which he said was designed to serve the interests of the government. Taştekin stated that the National Police Department's failure to announce detailed results of the exams is also problematic, casting further doubt on the motivations behind the changes to the system of promotion. He explained that candidates will not be informed about the number of points they earned, but will only be told whether they passed or failed each exam. Taştekin emphasized that the government is seeking to promote pro-government police chiefs quickly.

“Following the elections, the government, its legitimacy having become controversial, first employed partisan police officers and is now seeking to promote them speedily through controversial exams. We are seeing disputed practices that have never before been seen in the police organization,” Taştekin said.

The former police chief also warned that controversial practices like the introduction of the exams render police officers unable to perform their jobs effectively, leading to problems of security.

Same inspectors expel police officers

It is always the same eight National Police Department chief inspectors, out of a total of 1,500, who decide to fire police officers, Today's Zaman has discovered.

Following the Dec.17 probe, thousands of police officers who took part in major probes such as the Dec.17 graft probe, the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer coup probes, as well as the investigation into the Iran-backed Tawhid-Salam terrorist organization, have been reassigned or let go, after investigations performed by inspectors from the National Police Department.

The chief inspectors who decide whether officers are fired are Selim Kutkan, Turgay Alpman, Kenan Aydoğan, Nevzat İlhan Kayhan, Ercüment Özbeyli, Cemil Zafer, Refik Felek and Nevzat Yazıcı. The fact that it is always the same chief inspectors behind dismissals strengthens suspicions that they receive orders from the government, rather than conducting fair and independent investigations.

Bayram Kaya / Fazlı Mert, Ankara / İstanbul (Cihan/Today's Zaman)