The meeting on "Legal Review of Civilian Oversight of Internal Security in Turkey and within selected European Union Countries" was held in Ankara on 27 March 2009. The meeting, that was organized around a series of panel sessions, was held within the framework of “Improving the Civilian Oversight of Internal Security” project.

During this whole day event; in addition to the legal review presentations on civilian oversight of internal security sector of various European Union member countries, the challenges and shortcomings of the Turkish internal security legislation were assessed and recommendations were made through a comparative methodology.  Around 100 people representing the Ministry of Interior and main stakeholders were present at the meeting.  Through the meeting; it was aimed at reaching a synthesis after reviewing the experiences of European Union member countries and Turkey within the context of the legal review of the civilian oversight component of the project.

During the panel sessions; existing legislation on civilian administration and oversight of internal security sector was reviewed and similarities and gap analysis of legislation of institutions representing this sector were discussed. It was also aimed at assessing various initiatives around civilian oversight of internal security sector service units responsible from the provision of internal security such as evaluation of the regulations of the Police, Gendarmarie, coast guards and other relavant units.

In a separate panel session; the comparative assessment of internal security legislation of Turkey and selected EU member states from the perspective of civilian oversight of internal security  was brought on to the table through the involvement of international experts. Within this framework; there were presentations on three selected cases such as; France (which has a centralized administrative system with gendarmarie functioning as part of its internal security system); Spain ( which has gendarmarie to perform internal security functions within a decentralized administrative system) and the United Kingdom (which has a decentralized administrative sytem without gendarmarie serving within its security forces).