Police no longer enough to ensure security of cities, says Erdoğan

Duvar English

Police forces are no longer enough to ensure the security of cities and the authorities will come up with a “solution” to deal with this situation, President Recep Erdoğan said on Jan. 2.

“We have come to a point where we can longer ensure the security of our cities with fortifications and maintain the order inside with police forces. In the face of this new situation, we need to develop new methods,” Erdoğan said while addressing a conference named “City and Security Symposium" at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara.

The president said that Turkey will come up with its own “solutions” regarding the issue of security in cities and not utilize other countries' methods.

“Every country and society needs to develop solutions that are appropriate for its needs. Otherwise, we would end up using other countries' methods, and this would bring the problem of adaptation. We'll examine all the examples [in other countries], but we will take matters into our own hands. The elements that threaten the cities have changed in today's world,” he said.

“With the progress of the technology, cities' substructure and superstructure networks have become quite complex. The bigger a city is, the more problems it has in terms of security.”

Erdoğan also touched upon the issue of vertical settlement projects in the country, calling on mayors to push for horizontal urbanization against high-rise buildings.

“No concessions should be made regarding this issue [horizontal construction]. We are to betray our cities with vertical architecture, whereas with horizontal architecture, we are to build our own civilization and have an opportunity to show to the world what real urbanization looks like. We cannot reach anywhere with buildings built in matchbox style,” he said.