Having discharged and reassigned nearly 2,000 police chiefs and officers in anti-smuggling, financial crime, organized crime, counterintelligence and anti-terrorism branches of police departments in as many as 50 provinces since the start of a corruption crackdown that has rocked the government, Turkey’s Interior Ministry has secured and approved new lists of police to be purged that include 1,500 more officers working within the ranks of the National Police Department, Today's Zaman reports.

The ministry has already sacked 50 people from the National Police Department, including 14 police chiefs and their deputies. Sources close to the National Police Department say that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Police Intelligence Department (İDB) forged a number of lists of police officers to be fired and submitted them to the Interior Ministry. Sources learned the ministry approved the list and ordered the reassignment of those named to insignificant posts.

The sources told Today's Zaman that the purge has not yet started because the ministry deliberately decided to ease up its reassignments after facing harsh criticism from the European Union for intervening in the ongoing corruption investigation, which has implicated four ministers who lost their seats after public pressure compelled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to perform a Cabinet reshuffle.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity, according to Today's Zaman, say that the purge is temporarily on hold and the ministry is on the lookout for an opportunity to implement the firings and reassignments once the EU's attention is elsewhere. The officials say this pause in procedures could last up to two months.