Türkiye's outreach to other countries for security cooperation includes Somalia, whose ties with Ankara have substantially grown in the past decade. Somali police officers trained in Türkiye are playing a growing role in strengthening their country’s security.
"Transferring the experience gained over the years by the law enforcement agencies affiliated with our Interior Ministry to the law enforcement agencies of friendly and allied countries significantly contributes to security on a global and regional scale,” Gendarmerie Col. Tansu Utku, interior counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Saturday.
Utku said Somalia’s police lost much of its capability following the civil war and the collapse of the central government in 1991.
"Our country has consistently stood by the Somali people and the Somali state, with whom we share a bond of destiny and played an active role in the restructuring of the Somali police force following the reestablishment of the federal government in 2012,” he added.
Short-term training courses began in 2012 under bilateral cooperation and security agreements, said Utku, noting that Türkiye’s Police Academy and the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy have accepted undergraduate and graduate students from Somalia since 2015.
"Dozens of police officers have completed their training in Türkiye and are returning to their countries to serve in active and critical positions,” he highlighted.
He added that since 2019, the Somali Police Special Operations Unit has gained the capability to conduct high-risk tactical operations requiring specialized training.
Utku also said cooperation continues between Türkiye’s Directorate of Migration Management and Somalia’s Immigration and Citizenship Agency under national and international legal frameworks.
Abdinur, a Somali police lieutenant commissioner and deputy commander of the counterterrorism unit, said he studied in Türkiye in 2021 and earned a master’s degree at the Police Academy in Ankara.
Emphasizing that he returned to serve his country with the training he received, Abdinur said he also learned Turkish.
Maj. Abdi, liaison officer between the Turkish and Somali police forces, said he graduated from the Police Academy and earned his master’s degree in Türkiye. He later served as deputy commander of Special Operations before taking up his current post.
Police Station Commander Chief Inspector Olow said he traveled to Türkiye for training in 2021 and enrolled in the Strategy Management Department at the Police Academy in Ankara.
Expressing gratitude to the Turkish people, Olow said he greatly benefited from the training he received in Türkiye.
