Turkish President Erdo?an urges gov't to abolish private security

The government should replace all private security guards with police forces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said April 1, a day after a hostage rampage where a prosecutor and his two captors were killed.

?I will propose to my friends [the government] that they abolish private security guards altogether [from public institutions]. Most of them are already retired,? Erdo?an told daily Hürriyet in an interview aboard a plane returning from Bucharest to Istanbul.

?Private security organization should be reconsidered. The government will most probably discuss this issue. I believe it would be a historic decision. Maybe I could say this as a piece of advice. Turkey has a Police Department. It should establish protection teams in courthouses. Private security forces should be abolished. It is a question of who founded these security guard firms in many places, how and for which reasons. This should be examined,? said Erdo?an. 

Two militants with alleged links to the outlawed far-left Revolutionary People?s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), ?afak Yayla and Bahtiyar Do?ruyol, took Mehmet Selim Kiraz, the prosecutor in the controversial case of the killing of Gezi victim Berkin Elvan, hostage on March 31. Kiraz succumbed to injuries incurred during the long hostage drama while police forces also killed Yayla and Do?ruyol after riddling them with bullets.

Debate on searching lawyers

Erdo?an said lawyers should also be subjected to body searches before entering courthouses after Yayla and Do?ruyol allegedly entered the Ça?layan Courthouse wearing lawyers? robes.

?I have always defended the idea that lawyers should be searched. Other politicians have always attacked us when we voiced that. All officials, including...