Transition to modern law enforcement in the Ottoman Empire: The establishment of the Ottoman Gendarmerie Organization according to the 1903 Gendarmerie Regulation

In the Ottoman Empire, new measures in the field of internal security were both a necessity and a desire of the Europeans who were the protectors of the rebels. Modern Ottoman internal security has been tried to be created within such a series of reasons. Especially in order to re-establish the lost peace in the Ottoman provinces, the zaptiye, which was built on a civil core, was first established, and then it was concluded that the zapiye was not sufficient in its current state and the need for a radical revision was felt. It was also valid for the gendarmerie to innovate by looking at the western example, which became a tradition for the Ottoman intellectuals in this period. After looking at the examples of Italy and France, it was decided to apply the example of France to the Ottoman Empire to an extent that can be called one-to-one. With the escalation of the revolts in the Balkans and the Westerners' taking sides, they imposed new responsibilities on the internal security of the Ottomans in the Balkans. The Ottomans, who started to work to create a new internal security within the framework of the Mürzterg Plan, which is one of them, started to make a gendarmerie regulation and appointed Italian General Emilio De Giorgis during the establishment of this new organization. As mentioned above, the new regulation regulating the gendarmerie is a French-sourced regulation, first presented as a report and then published in 1903 and entered into force. The regulation dealt with the gendarmerie in a wide framework such as recruitment, hierarchy, duty framework, personal rights, internal discipline, extraordinary duties, duties in judicial cases, their role in prisoner transfers and road safety. In particular, the arbitrary behavior of the zaptiye period was tried to be prevented, and the articles regulating the subordinate relationship were discussed in a wide framework. Being literate was considered important and provided an advantage for promotion. From the year it entered into force, this new regulation remained in effect until the Republic era without any major changes.