AKIPRESS.COM - Some 25 law-enforcement and military officials, at a training course that concluded in Ashgabat today, discussed practices of responding to terrorism threats to large public events.

The OSCE Center in Ashgabat organized the eight-day training course to assist the host government in strengthening the capacities of relevant officials in countering terrorism threats while ensuring the security during large public events. Representatives from the Ministries of Defense and National Security, Interior Ministry, as well as the State Border Service, State Migration Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office discussed ensuring the security of public events, including facility security, resistance, emergency power, medical emergency and fire precaution.

International experts from Turkey introduced participants to the philosophy and models of crisis/hostage negotiations, practices of responding to hostage incidents and applying optimal negotiation tools.

The course also addressed the relevant legislative acts, such as the laws of Turkmenistan on emergency rule and on organizing and holding meetings, rallies, demonstrations and other mass events.

“As Turkmenistan recently passed a number of laws addressing the organization of public events, rallies and demonstrations, the Center designed this training course to facilitate the exchange of best practices in ensuring the security during mass gatherings and events in line with international standards and national legislation,” said Richard Wheeler, Political Officer of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat.

“The training course has an added value as it familiarized the relevant officials with effective techniques and instruments they will need to successfully accomplish their important task of ensuring the security and maintaining public order during the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and other large-scale events which will be held in Turkmenistan.”

During the course, participants also discussed contemporary crowd management techniques and took part in simulation exercises.