Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın has confirmed with a brief statement that he was dismissed from his post, private broadcaster CNNTürk reported Thursday.

"I'm a public officer. I've served for 4 and a half years here [in Istanbul] with honour," he said.

"But now I'm asked to return to headquarters. Let's hope for the best," Çapkın added.

Istanbul and Ankara police staged morning raids December 17 as part of a probe into tender fraud and bribery operation allegations, detaining over 80 people.

There are three members of the Cabinet whose sons are among those detainees; Interior Minister Muammer Güler, Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar and Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan. The suspects are, respectively, Barış Güler, Abdullah Oğuz Bayraktar and Kaan Çağlayan.

Two of Çapkın's assistants, as well as four assistant chiefs, including chiefs involved in the execution of a corruption operation targeting high-profile figures, were also dismissed from their posts Dec. 18.

The two assistants of Çapkın dismissed were Deputy Police Chief Mahir Çakallı, from the Organized Crimes Bureau, and Deputy Police Chief Hamza Tosun, from the Financial Crimes Bureau.

Two deputy chiefs at the Organized Crime Bureau, Şenol Demir and Ahmet Kalender, as well as two deputy chiefs of Financial Crimes, Yasin Topçu and Kazım Aksoy, were also dismissed from their posts.

The dismissal of six police chief deputies came after five police commissioners in the Istanbul Police Department, were discharged from their offices earlier Dec. 18 morning.

Yesterday morning’s dismissed police department chiefs included Finance Branch Head Yakub Saygılı and Organized Crime Branch Head Nazmi Ardıç, who were conducting the operations, as well as Smuggling Branch Head Tuğrul Turhal, Anti-Terrorism Branch Head Ömer Köse and Public Security Branch Head Ertan Erçıktı, daily Hürriyet reported.

They were replaced with Hakan Sıralı, Aydın Yılmaz, Ömer Burak Aktaş, Ali Serdar Sekkin and Yusuf Bengü respectively.

France24