Türkiye's Justice Ministry announced on Monday the establishment of specialized terrorism investigation units within provincial prosecutors' offices across the country in an effort to improve coordination, consistency and efficiency in terrorism-related investigations.
According to a directive prepared on the instructions of Justice Minister Akın Gürlek and signed by Deputy Justice Minister Can Tuncay, dedicated Terror Crimes Investigation Bureaus will be established within provincial chief public prosecutors' offices. The directive was sent to 175 chief public prosecutors' offices with heavy penal court jurisdiction in all 81 provinces.
Under the new system, prosecutors assigned to the bureaus will handle only terrorism-related cases and will not be assigned other prosecutorial duties, including court appearances, on-call shifts or unrelated investigations.
The directive said terrorism offenses directly affect public security, social order, the constitutional system and the country's territorial integrity, emphasizing that investigations should be conducted promptly, carefully and in accordance with existing legislation.
All terrorism-related investigations will be carried out through the newly established bureaus. District prosecutors' offices will be permitted to conduct urgent investigative procedures only upon instruction from the relevant provincial prosecutor's office, after which case files must be transferred without delay.
The measure is an administrative directive governing the internal division of work within prosecutors' offices rather than a legislative amendment.
Specialized terrorism investigation bureaus already operate in major courthouses, including those in Ankara, Istanbul, Diyarbakır and Van. The new directive expands that model to all chief public prosecutors' offices with heavy penal court jurisdiction across Türkiye and requires prosecutors assigned to those bureaus to work exclusively on terrorism-related cases.
The Justice Ministry also ordered the creation of a monthly coordination mechanism between prosecutors and law enforcement agencies. Meetings, coordinated by the ministry's General Directorate of Criminal Affairs, will bring together officials from the Interior Ministry's police and gendarmerie counterterrorism departments to review ongoing investigations, developments involving terrorist organizations and operational priorities.
The ministry said monthly nationwide statistics on terrorism investigations will also be compiled and shared with relevant security institutions before the coordination meetings to support intelligence sharing and policy planning.
Turkish authorities said the measures are designed to strengthen institutional coordination among prosecutors' offices and improve the effectiveness of terrorism investigations.
