Emniyet

Emniyet is a Turkish noun meaning safety, security, or protection from danger. In everyday use it denotes the state of being free from harm and is commonly applied to the maintenance of public order and internal security. In modern Turkey, emniyet is closely associated with law enforcement, and the term is often used as shorthand for the state police services.

The Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü (EGM) is the Turkish National Police, the central body responsible to the Ministry of the Interior for policing nationwide. Its duties include preventing and investigating crime, maintaining public order, enforcing traffic regulations, and coordinating counter-terrorism, border security, and forensic work. The EGM administers specialized units such as criminal investigation, traffic, public order, border security, cybercrime, and forensics, and it operates through provincial police directorates and municipal police departments.

In the Turkish security framework, emniyet operates alongside the Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı (Gendarmerie). The police handle urban and metropolitan areas, while the gendarmerie assumes rural and some semi-urban responsibilities; both bodies are under the oversight of the Ministry of the Interior, with respective command structures.

Historically, the emniyet concept and institutions have roots in reform movements of the late Ottoman period; in the republican era the police structures were reorganized and professionalized to meet modern security needs. See also Turkish National Police, Gendarmerie, and public safety.