Afghanistan's female police cadets undergo training in Turkey

As part of the international police training program, which has been held for years, Turkey commenced on Thursday the new semester of training for 246 female Afghan police cadets, enrolled in the four-month program, in the central city of Sivas.

Some 246 cadets enrolled in the four-month training at a police academy in the city. They are the latest batch of female officers from conflict-ridden Afghanistan, who signed a training protocol with Turkey in 2011. A total of 2,733 Afghan police officers have undergone training in Turkey since then.

Apart from conventional police training ranging from shooting training and crime scene investigation et cetera, female cadets will undergo specialized training on crimes committed against women.

Afghanistan's Deputy Interior Minister Ekramuddin Yawar joined Turkish officials for a ceremony at the police academy in Sivas yesterday and said Turkey has always been a friend of Afghanistan. Fatih İnal, vice president of an authority overseeing police academies in Turkey, said his country was proud and happy to train female officers from Afghanistan. "Turkey will not be relieved unless peace prevails in Afghanistan," İnal said in a speech at the ceremony.

Although they are nearly 3,000 kilometers apart, Afghanistan and Turkey enjoy close ties dating back to the early years of the Turkish Republic. Turkey was the first country to open a diplomatic mission in Kabul in 1921 and both Muslim-majority countries maintain deep cultural ties dating back to the Turkic rule of Afghanistan up to the 12th century.

The employment of female police officers is relatively novel in Afghanistan where women were shunned from such tasks during the Taliban rule. The number of female police officers still remains low compared to their male colleagues, but Afghanistan seeks to enroll more female police officers in the face of the on-going Taliban threat and crimes against women.

Apart from Afghanistan, the Turkish National Police offers training for law enforcement officials from more than 50 countries, mostly developing or underdeveloped ones, and has trained more than 20,000 cadets and officers since 1997.