BALANCING REFORM AND STABILITY: POLICE REFORM TRAJECTORIES IN POST-2010 KYRGYZSTAN

Yıl 2026, Sayı: 65 , 325 - 346 , 30.04.2026

Fatih Tuna

https://izlik.org/JA89WX27PF

Öz

This study analyzes the trajectory of police reform in Kyrgyzstan following the 2010 political transition, focusing on the interrelationship among governance practices, institutional change, and mechanisms of public accountability. It asks how police reform in Kyrgyzstan has developed since 2010, and to what extent these reform efforts have strengthened governance, enhanced public accountability, or reproduced existing institutional practices. Based on official records, international evaluation reports, and academic scholarship, this study maps the reform trajectory across three phases: donor-backed engagement from 2010 to 2014, legal and institutional modernization between 2014 and 2016, and the post-2016 phase marked by recentralization and reform fatigue. It demonstrates that while initial reform efforts incorporated participatory mechanisms, such as pilot community policing initiatives, their institutional effects remained modest and susceptible to political change. The analysis is grounded in a governance-centered framework that synthesizes perspectives from security sector reform, norm diffusion theory, and participatory oversight to examine why police reform has stalled. The Kyrgyz case indicates that reform outcomes are driven primarily by political commitment, patterns of state-society interaction, and path-dependent institutional legacies, rather than by technical police reform design. This article deepens scholarly understanding of the ways in which hybrid governance environments mediate the adaptation and endurance of internationally diffused reform norms in policing.

Anahtar Kelimeler

: Police Reform , Governance , Security Sector Reform , Kyrgyzstan , State-Society Relations

REFORM İLE İSTİKRAR ARASINDAKİ DENGE: 2010 SONRASI KIRGIZİSTAN’DA POLİS REFORM SÜREÇLERİ

https://izlik.org/JA89WX27PF

Öz

Bu makale, 2010 yılındaki siyasal değişim sonrasında Kırgızistan’da yürütülen polis reformunun gelişimini araştırmaktadır. Çalışmada, 2010 sonrasında Kırgızistan’da polis reformunun nasıl şekillendiği ve bu reformların yönetişimi güçlendirme, kamusal hesap verebilirliği artırma ya da mevcut kurumsal pratikleri yeniden üretme düzeyi sorgulanmaktadır. Resmi kurum raporları, uluslararası değerlendirmeler ve akademik literatüre dayanılarak polis reformu süreci üç aşamada ele alınmıştır: uluslararası donör destekli polis reformu (2010-2014), yasal mevzuat ve kurumsal reformlar (2014-2016) ve 2016 sonrasında meydana gelen merkezileşme ve reform yorgunluğu süreci. Polis reformu çabaları kapsamında toplum destekli polis uygulamaları gibi yenilikçi uygulamalar geliştirilmesine rağmen bu girişimlerin kurumsal etkisi sınırlı kalmış ve ülkede yaşanan siyasi gelişmelere bağımlı durumda kalmayı sürdürmüştür. Araştırmada, güvenlik sektörü reformu, norm yayılımı ve katılımcı denetim teorilerinden yararlanılmak suretiyle yönetişim temelli bir teorik çerçeve sunulmuştur. Araştırmanın bulguları ise polis reformunun başarısının reformun tasarımından daha çok siyasi irade, devlet ile toplum arasındaki ilişkiler ve ülkedeki kurumsallaşmış yapıların etkisi çerçevesinde belirlendiğine işaret etmektedir. Kırgızistan örneği, polis reformu bağlamında, hibrit yönetişim koşullarında uluslararası reform normlarının nasıl yerelleştirildiğini ve ne ölçüde sürdürülebilir olduğunu anlamaya katkı sunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Polis Reformu , Yönetişim , Güvenlik Sektörü Reformu , Kırgızistan , Devlet-Toplum İlişkileri

Kaynakça

• Acharya, Amitav. “How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism,” International Organization, vol. 58, no. 2, 2004, pp. 239–275.
• Aliiaskarov, Bekchoro. “Police Repression and Trauma in Light of the Revolutions in Kyrgyzstan”, Central Asian Affairs, vol. 10, no. 2, 2023, pp. 157–182.
• Artur kyzy, Reina. Lessons of the OSCE Police Assistance in Central Asia: With a Case Study of Kyrgyzstan. Central Asia Security Policy Briefs, no. 18. OSCE Academy in Bishkek, January 2015. PDF. https://www.osce-academy.net/upload/file/Policy_Brief_18.pdf .
• Bellamy, Alex J. “Security Sector Reform: Prospects and Problems,” Global Change, Peace & Security, vol. 15, no. 2, 2003, pp. 101–119.
• Bittner, Egon. The Functions of the Police in Modern Society: A Review of Background Factors, Current Practices, and Possible Role Models. National Institute of Mental Health Publication No. 2059, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1970.
• Bond, Andrew R. and Natalie R. Koch. “Interethnic Tensions in Kyrgyzstan: A Political Geographic Perspective”, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol. 51, no. 4, 2010, pp. 531–562.
• Boonstra, Jos, Erica Marat, and Vera Axyonova. “Security Sector Reform in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: What Role for Europe,” Europe–Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM) Working Paper No. 14, Madrid, 2013.
• Brodeur, Jean-Paul. “Police,” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/police
• Davis, Diane E. “Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico”, Latin American Politics and Society, vol. 48, no. 1, 2006, pp. 55–86.
• DCAF. Almanac 2012: Governing and Reforming Kyrgyzstan’s Security Sector (Civil Society Monitoring and Reform Dynamics), DCAF, Geneva, 2012.
• Detzner, Sarah. “Modern Post-Conflict Security Sector Reform in Africa: Patterns of Success and Failure,” African Security Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2017, pp. 116–142.
• Egnell, Robert, and Peter Haldén. “Laudable, Ahistorical and Overambitious: Security Sector Reform Meets State Formation Theory. Analysis,” Conflict, Security & Development, vol. 9, no. 1, 2009, pp. 27–54. Eaton, Kent. “Paradoxes of Police Reform: Federalism, Parties, and Civil Society in Argentina’s Public Security Crisis”, Latin American Research Review, vol. 43, no. 3, 2008, pp. 5–32.
• Friesendorf, Cornelius. “Supporting Democratic Policing in Central Asia: Limitations of the OSCE”, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 74, no. 8, 2022, pp. 1433–1458.
• Galeotti, Mark. “Crime in Central Asia: A Regional Problem with Global Implications”, IBRU Boundary and Security Bulletin, 1995, pp. 1995–1996.
• Hanks, Reuel R. “Crisis in Kyrgyzstan: Conundrums of Ethnic Conflict, National Identity and State Cohesion”, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, 2011, pp. 177–187.
• International Crisis Group. Kyrgyzstan: Widening Ethnic Divisions in the South, Asia Report No. 222, 29 March 2012, https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/kyrgyzstan/222-kyrgyzstan-widening-ethnic-divisions-south (accessed 1 January 2026).
• Lee, Rensselaer W. and Scott B. MacDonald. “Drugs in the East”, Foreign Policy, no. 90, 1993, pp. 89–107.
• Lewis, David. “Security Sector Reform in Authoritarian Regimes: The OSCE Experience of Police Assistance Programming in Central Asia”, Security and Human Rights, vol. 22, no. 2, 2011, pp. 103–117.
• Lewis, David. “Who’s Socialising Whom? Regional Organisations and Contested Norms in Central Asia.” Europe-Asia Studies 64, no. 7 (2012): 1219–1237.
• Lottholz, Philipp, and Arzuu Sheranova. “Governing, but Not Producing Security? Internationalised Community Security Practices in Kyrgyzstan.” International Quarterly for Asian Studies (IQAS) 52, nos. 1–2 (2021): 55–77.
• Lottholz, Philipp. “Reclaiming Security? Functional Differentiation (and Drawbacks) of Civil Society Actors and State Structures in Kyrgyzstan,” Securitization, Politicization and Social Differentiation in History, 2025, pp. 87–114.
• Lottholz, Philipp. “The Roles and Practices of Civil Society Actors in Police Reform in Kyrgyzstan: Activism, Expertise, Knowledge Production.” International Peacekeeping 28, no. 1 (2021): 52–83.
• Marat, Erica. “OSCE Police Reform Programmes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: Past Constraints and Future Opportunities,” Europe–Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM), 2012.
• Marat, Erica. “Policing Public Protest in Central Asia”, Central Asian Affairs, vol. 1, no. 1, 2014, pp. 5–23.
• Marat, Erica. “Reforming the Police in Post-Soviet States: Georgia and Kyrgyzstan”, Current Politics and Economics of Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, vol. 29, no. 5, 2014, p. 595.
• Marat, Erica. “Reforming Police in Post-Communist Countries: International Efforts, Domestic Heroes.” Comparative Politics 48, no. 3 (2016): 333–352.
• Megoran, Nick. “Averting Violence in Kyrgyzstan: Understanding and Responding to Nationalism”, Russia and Eurasia Programme Paper, no. 3, 2012, pp. 971–986.
• Meijer, Albert. “Coproduction as a Structural Transformation of the Public Sector”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 29, no. 6 (2016), pp. 596–611.
• Mueller, Markus, and Axel Ostlund. “People’s Security—Today’s Challenges of a New Approach to Policing: Working Experience of the Community Security Initiative (CSI) Project in Kyrgyzstan 2011,” Security and Human Rights, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, pp. 57–63.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Security System Reform and Governance. OECD Publishing, Paris, 2005.
• https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2005/05/security-system-reform-and-governance_g1gh4ce3/9789264007888-en.pdf
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD DAC Handbook on Security System Reform: Supporting Security and Justice. OECD Publishing, Paris, 2007. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2008/02/the-oecd-dac-handbook-on-security-system-reform_g1gh8153/9789264027862-en.pdf
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. “OSCE Support to Kyrgyzstan’s Police Reform Essential, Interior Minister Says,” OSCE Permanent Council Press Release, Vienna, 24 September 2009, https://www.osce.org/pc/51357 , Accessed: 1 January 2026.
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. “OSCE supports national forum on police reform in Kyrgyzstan,” OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek Press Release, Bishkek, 12 October 2011, https://bishkek.osce.org/bishkek/83881 , Accessed: 1 January 2026.
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. “OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek hands over video surveillance equipment to State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan,” OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek News Release, Bishkek, 30 October 2017, https://bishkek.osce.org/programme-office-in-bishkek/353066 , Accessed: 1 January 2026.
• O’Shea, Liam. “Why Democratic Police Reform Mostly Fails and Sometimes Succeeds: Police Reform and Low State Capacity, Authoritarianism and Neo-Patrimonial Politics (in the Former Soviet Union)”, Policing and Society, vol. 33, no. 3, 2023, pp. 245–263.
• Ostrom, Elinor. “Crossing the Great Divide: Coproduction, Synergy, and Development,” World Development, vol. 24, no. 6, 1996, pp. 1073–1087.
• Reiner, Robert. The Politics of the Police, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.
• Saferworld. Community Policing in Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan (Formal Reforms vs Informal Practices; Implementation Constraints), Saferworld, London, 2021.
• Schroeder, Ursula C. ve Fairlie Chappuis. “New Perspectives on Security Sector Reform: The Role of Local Agency and Domestic Politics”, International Peacekeeping, vol. 21, no. 2 (2014), pp. 133–148.
• Shelley, Louise I. “The Soviet Militsiia: Agents of Political and Social Control”, Policing and Society: An International Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 1990, pp. 39–56.
• Tan, See Seng, and Alvin Chew. “Governing Singapore’s Security Sector: Problems, Prospects and Paradox,” Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs, vol. 30, no. 2, 2008, pp. 241–263.
• United Nations. Securing Peace and Development: The Role of the United Nations in Supporting Security Sector Reform, Report of the Secretary-General, A/62/659–S/2008/39, United Nations, New York, 2008. https://docs.un.org/en/a/62/659
• United Nations Development Programme and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Joint Police Reform Impact Assessment Report, UNDP/OSCE, 2016.
• Zacka, Bernardo. When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2017.
• Zimmermann, Lisbeth. “Same Same or Different? Norm Diffusion between Resistance, Compliance, and Localization in Post-Conflict States”, International Studies Perspectives, vol. 17, no. 1, 2016, pp. 98–115.