05 Sep 2011 by Ludwig Boltzmann

Kick-off Event Twinning ‘Implementation Capacity of Turkish Police to Prevent Disproportionate Use of Force’

The EU-funded Twinning project ‘Implementation Capacity of Turkish Police to Prevent Disproportionate Use of Force’ has started officially with the kick off-meeting on 5 and 6 September 2011 in Ankara. Together with the Turkish National Police the Austrian-German Consortium will jointly draft legal recommendations, develop standard operating procedures and implement a train the trainer programme that will enable a better compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights.

High-ranking representatives of the Turkish National Police, the Turkish and Austrian Ministry of Interior, the EU Delegation in Ankara, the German and Austrian Embassies, stakeholders and the project team as well as the Turkish Ministry of Interior attended the meeting. “Fundamental rights are a fundamental part of the EU treaty and as such should be fundamentally respected”, said Tibor Varadi from the EU-Delegation and underlined the importance of concrete results. he continued: “The project creates a win-win-situation. It will make a major contribution in making police practices more compliant with human rights standards. At the same time it can improve the professional satisfaction within the police.” Mehmet Kılıčlar, General Director of Turkish Police, underlined that the issue of use of force by the police is a sensitive topic not only in Turkey, but also in Germany and Austria.