Top Turkish Law Enforcement Officials to Visit UC for Signing of Terrorism Research Agreement

Research activity on one of the most pressing issues of our time – terrorism – will advance to a whole new level at the University of Cincinnati beginning Oct. 19, when the leadership of Turkey’s national police agency visits campus to officially launch a new joint partnership for anti-terrorism and security research with UC’s Division of Criminal Justice.

Top leaders from the Turkish National Police – led by Turkey’s highest ranking law enforcement official, General Director and Governor Gokhan Aydiner – will be at UC on the morning of Oct. 19 to officially sign Institutional Collaboration Agreements that launch joint research activities between UC and the Turkish Institute for Policing Studies (TIPS).

The signings will take place in the office of UC President Nancy L. Zimpher, with coordination with the UC International Programs office.

The UC-TIPS international terrorism and security research will enable experts from UC’s criminal justice faculty to partner with Turkish law enforcement professionals to work on some of the most pressing issues in terrorism and security – issues that the Turkish police have plenty of practical experience with because of terror threats within their own country and their region, which includes shared borders with Iraq, Iran and Syria.

"The importance of working with the Turkish National Police as a partner cannot be overstated," says Robin Engel, associate professor of criminal justice and the director of UC’s Policing Institute. "As a Muslim society and member of NATO, they are the best link between the West’s cultural and democratic ideals and Mideastern Muslim culture. They have a long history with terrorism, as well. This new partnership will allow us to explore best practices in democratic policing and how they can relate to terrorism."

In the last year, UC has enrolled 20 graduate students from Turkish police agencies within the Criminal Justice program. The new collaboration will allow an expansion of the education of those students into joint research activities with UC faculty on issues of terrorism, security and democracy.

"We chose the University of Cincinnati because they are the number one criminal justice research program in the United States," says Mehmet Unal, a captain in the Turkish National Police’s organized crime unit who is entering his second year of doctoral study at UC. "UC doesn’t have a lot of experience with terrorism, but we do, and we are looking forward to combining that with the research expertise here."

The traditional view of policing in Turkey and other countries in the region has not included university-level academic support for research and advance training. In seeking a more progressive approach to the difficult security issues facing law enforcement in Turkey – issues that were brought into even sharper focus after 9/11 – Turkish police leadership began to look to the U.S. academic community as a new resource.

The new partnership at UC will look at issues such as recruitment, the motivation behind terrorism, interdicting financial support and the development of new strategies to counteract terrorism. UC and the Turkish National Police, one of the world’s largest police agencies with more than 200,000 sworn officers, will work jointly on efforts to compete for research funding from external sources.

Along with the department’s chief official in Aydiner, other top Turkish National Police (TNP) officials who will be in the delegation visiting UC include:

• Recep Gultekin, the chief of police and head of foreign relations for the TNP
• Ahmet Pek, the chief of police and head of the anti-smuggling and organized crime department for the TNP
• Ramazan Akyurek, the chief of police and head of the intelligence department for the TNP
• Huseyin Capkin, the chief of police of the Izmir Police Department
• Celalettin Cerrah, the chief of police of the Istanbul Police Department
• Samih Teymur, the director of the Turkish Institute for Police Studies

The delegation is officially being hosted by the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, and will also be officially visiting the Cincinnati Police Department. They will be receiving police escort throughout their visit. University of Cincinnati Chief of Police and Associate Vice President Gene Ferrara and senior officers are formally hosting the Turkish National Police Delegation at UC. Also on hand for the UC portion of their visit will be John Peach, the police chief at Kent State University, which is also hosting Turkish police students through the TIPS program.

UC’s relationship with the Turkish National Police dates back to the summer of 2005, when Engel was invited to present at the first Istanbul Conference for Democracy and Security. Contacts made there laid the groundwork for TIPS to expand its educational offerings to include UC’s Division of Criminal Justice.

A year ago, the first of the Turkish National Police personnel arrived to begin graduate classes within the division. The total number at UC is now up to 20 within the division, with an additional four students who have just begun studies this fall in the McMicken College of Arts & Science’s political science master’s program.

This past June, a delegation of 42 UC criminal justice faculty members, students and their guests traveled to Turkey for a two week-long tour of that country’s criminal justice infrastructure.

In June of 2007, UC will be assisting Turkish officials in organizing the 2nd Istanbul Conference on Democracy and Global Security, which is also being sponsored by the United Nations, NATO and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Three UC representatives – UC’s Division of Criminal Justice department head Edward Latessa, UC College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services Associate Dean Nelson Vincent and the aforementioned Engel – are serving on the conference’s advisory board.

"Our government has made the commitment it has because we have focus on terrorism," says Unal. "It’s a long-term project. You can’t solve terrorism with a short-term answer. We’ll go back to Turkey and work on everything we learn here. We’ll be going back with all this research to build from."