A total of 113 police chiefs sacked by Erdogan's government.

A total of 113 police chiefs sacked by Erdogan's government.(TZ).

Turkish authorities have removed another 28 police chiefs from their posts, media outlets reported on Sunday, in addition to 85 throughout last week, raising the total number of reassignments and firings to 113 in a widening a crackdown that came on the heels of a wave of arrests and detentions in a corruption investigation that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called a "dirty operation" against his rule.

As of Sunday, seven senior police chiefs, 13 deputy police chiefs, 79 branch chiefs and 14 heads of departments had been reassigned or removed from duty. Others are speculating that 180 more policemen will be removed from their posts soon.

On Saturday, Erdoğan accused "international groups" and "dark alliances" of being behind the graft investigations and signaled that the purge of the country's police forces would continue.

Twenty-four people have been formally arrested in the corruption investigation, including the sons of two government ministers and the general manager of state-owned Halkbank, and scores have been detained.

In response, about 70 police officers, including the powerful head of İstanbul's police force, have been sacked or reassigned since the detentions and arrests started last week.

The prime minister vowed on Saturday to “clean out” those behind the corruption investigation from the state."Those who want to establish a parallel structure alongside the state, those who have infiltrated the state institutions … we will come into your lairs and we will clean out these organizations within the state," he said in a speech in the northern city of Ordu.

One of the first moves by İstanbul's new police chief, Selami Altınok, was to ban journalists from entering police stations across the country, local media reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ went to the İstanbul Police Department and stayed there for about an hour. “I came to convey my best wishes,” he said, referring to newly appointed chief Altınok.

The former İstanbul police chief, Hüseyin Çapkın, was removed from his post and reassigned last week. Given the unusual appointments and removals in the police forces, Bozdağ's visit sparked speculation of government pressure.

On Sunday, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli called the removals of General Security Directorate (EGM) police chiefs contentious, adding that they were out of line with democratic practice and the rule of law.