An average of one police officer has died by suicide every four days in Turkey this year, with 72 deaths recorded so far, prompting renewed calls from a police union and opposition lawmakers for an investigation and measures to improve working conditions, Turkish media reported.
The latest death was that of Yasemin Bodur Karasu, a 33-year veteran of the police force who served in the western province of Kütahya and died by suicide on October 5. Her death followed a group of suicides in late September, when the Emniyet-Sen police union reported seven deaths among members of the force in just five days.
Shortly before Karasu’s death, retired police officer Ali Şekeroğlu, 60, died by suicide during a September 25 protest over inadequate pensions outside Turkey’s Constitutional Court. He shot himself in front of members of the press covering the protest and later died in a hospital.
Emniyet-Sen has linked the suicides to long working hours, workplace bullying, financial hardship and inadequate personnel rights. The union called on officers nationwide to stop work for half a day on September 28 in protest over conditions.
Police suicides in Turkey have risen in recent years, with 73 officers dying by suicide in 2024 and 82 serving officers in 2025.
Main opposition New Party lawmaker Murat Bakan said he had repeatedly raised the issue in parliament since 2015 and submitted a motion for a parliamentary investigation into the causes of police suicides. The motion was rejected with the votes of lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its nationalist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
AKP and MHP lawmakers also in February voted down a proposal by the İYİ (Good) Party to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate police suicides. Similar proposals submitted by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) were rejected by AKP and MHP lawmakers in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
Concerns about suicides in Turkey’s police force have been growing in recent years, with unions and opposition lawmakers criticizing authorities for failing to address what they describe as systemic problems within the force.
