• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Sunday, July 13, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Turkey Introduces Neighborhood Watches In Istanbul Amid Controversy

Abdullah Ayasun by Abdullah Ayasun
08/14/17
in Featured, Middle East
neighborhood watches. Istanbul, Turkey, police

Istanbul's new neighborhood watches, in their newly designed uniforms, listen to Istanbul Police Chief during a ceremony.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In a new government project launched during the state of emergency, 386 neighborhood watches will begin on Monday to scout streets and their neighborhood during nights to provide security in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.

Turkish media released photos of newly graduated cadets who received training by police. The new project has sparked ongoing political controversy over the true nature and scope of neighborhood watches’ mission.

The opposition harbors genuine doubts over the new force in neighborhoods and accuses the government of building its own force for political purposes.

The policy was not without precedents. During the 1960s and 1970s when rapid economic progress and urbanization saw millions of people moving to cities from rural areas in mass internal migration waves, city administrations set up a similar mechanism to provide security during nights against crime and burglary.

Hundreds of thousands of newcomers formed shanty neighborhoods on the outskirts of Istanbul, and sometimes built new residential areas adjacent to affluent districts, thus exposing vivid socio-economic disparity among social classes. The neighborhood watches later were tasked with deterring possible break-ins and burglaries.

The practice lasted longer in several parts of Anatolia, while deadly political violence gripped metropolitan cities in the late 1970s, contributing to the termination of the watch system.

What forms the core of the opposition’s anxiety is the authority and power given to new people who will serve as citizen guards in neighborhoods.

During a ceremony to celebrate the first graduates on Saturday, Istanbul Police Chief Mustafa Caliskan appeared to be encouraging new guards, or watches, to use their guns when they deem it necessary.

“Do not hesitate to use your guns,” the police chief said, “in cases when your rights allow you to do so.”

At least 8,320 volunteers applied to Istanbul Police Department for limited numbers of posts in February when the government first launched the program. In May, it took an official form, with the government’s decree was published in Official Gazette.

Of those applications, the police department only accepted 700 of them. In the first phase, 386 candidates completed their training that included close combat techniques by Police Special Forces, use of firearms and other types of training normally given to Turkey’s police force. On Monday night, they will begin to work in neighborhoods.

Police Chief Caliskan said Istanbul was chosen as a city to test the adequacy and functionality of the program. He called the guards as “Night Eagles,” and pledged to work to make the “Night Eagles” eagerly embraced by the society.

ShareTweet
Abdullah Ayasun

Abdullah Ayasun

Staff Writer

Related Posts

WeChat app logo
National

Canada Bans WeChat and Kaspersky on Government Phones

by Staff Writer
October 31, 2023
Syrian rescuers and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building, in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's Idlib province on the border with Turkey, early on February 6, 2023. Syrian rescuers (White Helmets) and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building
World

Quake Kills Over 1,200 Across Turkey, Syria

by Staff Writer
February 6, 2023
Greek Immigration Minister Notis Mitarachi
Refugees

Greece Denies Turkey Claims Over Six Migrants Killed at Sea

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
anti femicide group
Democracy at Risk

Anti-Femicide Group Goes on Trial in Turkey, Faces Risk of Closure

by Staff Writer
June 1, 2022
The Club Netflix
Lifestyle

Netflix Series Helps Heal Wounds of Turkey’s Jews

by Staff Writer
March 19, 2022
AFP photographer arrested
Media Freedom

Turkish Reporters Demand Protection After Violent Arrest

by Staff Writer
June 29, 2021
Next Post
stephen miller white nationalism

America’s Birmingham Moment

Dreamers, DACA, American Dream, Trump

Dreamers Deserve Our Attention And Respect

Recommended

UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Says US Sanctions on Expert Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Must Be Reversed

July 11, 2025
Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025
US President Donald Trump

US Senate Edges Towards Vote on Trump’s Divisive Spending Bill

June 30, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post