‘Emergency’ continues
5th State of Emergency expected as compliance laws debate looms
The State of Emergency (OHAL) announced shortly after the July 15 coup attempt in 2016 was extended – for the fourth time – for another three months on July 19 and is due to end on Oct. 19. The measures taken within OHAL have been criticized by the EU, the Council of Europe and various human rights organizations as well as Turkish opposition parties except the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Criticism is frequently expressed in the sense that the superiority of the law is being ignored, justice has been damaged and that the prosecution has lost its independence. During the time that OHAL has been maintained, many international investors have refrained from investing in Turkey.
Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has mooted a proposal for a formula. “Since the reasons for OHAL are still valid, the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior can be temporarily authorized to make the necessary legal arrangements,” he said. He explained that the Ministry of Interior could be granted a temporary period of one year to clean up the what he called the treacherous networks within the state and the Ministry of Justice one year to conclude related detentions. Zeybekci added that this formula is entirely his own opinion and had not made it onto the Cabinet’s agenda.
In the opening speech of the new legislative year in Parliament, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that OHAL would continue, as does the countdown to Oct. 19. “There are a number of attributions for OHAL that are not really acceptable. Extraordinary threats require extraordinary precautions,” said the president. “Of course, the emergency situation will also end when the need for the fight against terrorism disappears.” It is expected that OHAL will be discussed in Parliament on Oct. 17.
Law of compl ance on the table
Following the April 16 referendum, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, which issued emergency compliance laws, is preparing to take another step before March 2018. The AK Party will sit around a table with opposition parties during this legislative period to discuss the work carried out by the justice and interior ministries in cooperation with a commission established at AK Party headquarters. A 160-item draft text prepared by the AK Party Group will be presented to opposition parties, with changes to election law being the most important and controversial of these harmonization laws. Not on the table this time is the ‘narrow zone and the narrowed region’ electoral system, which the AK Party opened the debate with in the past, but opposition parties did not support. The AK Party is preparing to revise the ‘narrow zone and the narrowed region’ proposals in relation to election law amendments that should be placed on the agenda under the new Constitution, and bring them to the parliamentary agenda in the current period. The question of whether to reduce or increase the electoral threshold is likely to be clari¿ed following reconciliation and political developments among the parties.