A critical agreement between Türkiye and the Palestinian Authority came into force this week, with the approval of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Memorandum of Understanding on Training of Law Enforcement will allow Turkish security forces to train their Palestinian counterparts.
Türkiye’s Police Academy provided educational programs for more than 1,000 Palestinian police officers since 1998 but the new deal will be more comprehensive in its scope. It aims to strengthen cooperation on law enforcement training between the two countries. It also covers the exchange of personnel between two countries and the exchange of information and experience. According to information from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the program aims to provide postgraduate and undergraduate programs for Palestinian prospective police officers through the Police Academy and Directorate of Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy.
The deal was signed in 2022 in Palestine’s Ramallah by Turkish and Palestinian officials. Türkiye maintains close ties both with the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas and the resistance movement Hamas, which only recently reconciled with Fatah governing the authority. Erdoğan has hosted late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Abbas in Ankara at the height of the Palestine-Israel conflict in a show of solidarity. Abbas also addressed the Turkish Parliament in a historic speech in August.
Türkiye’s Police Academy and other institutions provided training for thousands of prospective policemen and policewomen over the past decades as part of similar agreements signed with friendly countries, from Afghanistan to Syrian opposition forces.