ABSTRACT This study aims to analyse the strategic decisions made by the foundational cadre during the establishment of homeland security in the early years of the Turkish Republic and their consequential impact on the institutional capacities of the state’s coercive apparatus. To achieve this objective, this article primarily focuses on the evolutionary trajectory of homeland security institutions during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire and the founding period of the Turkish Republic. A central thesis posited herein contends that political considerations were the driving force behind the establishment of police organizations and the subsequent professionalization of policing, particularly since the 1930s. This study also elucidates the political directives issued to the police organization by the government, the successive phases of police training, and the legal framework governing the restructuring of the police institution.