The two years old state of emergency imposed in Turkey after a coup attempt ended on Thursday after the government announced the crucial step towards bringing normalcy to the country. But the government seeks to pass a new legislation in this regard that would comprise some of the measure’s power.
The failed coup attempt was made on July 20, 2016, after which the government of Turkey imposed an Emergency rule five days after the attempt. This was, according to the government, to enable authorities “to take swift and effective action against those responsible” for it.
The government was criticized by opposition and Turkey’s Western allies for its next steps to extend the Emergency rule up to seven times.
More than 250 people became death victims of the deadly coup attempt. The numbers exclude the plotters. The government in Ankara plainly puts up the blame on the movement associated by Fethullah Gulen. He is a religious leader living in the United States under the status of self-imposed exile. The leader denies any kind of involvement in the coup attempt.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, promised during his election campaign that he would end the state of emergency after the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Erdogan became Turkey’s first executive president holding significantly increased powers after winning the June 24 poll.
The government under the freshly elected president reiterated that it would not seek an extension of the Emergency rule under which tens of thousands of people were either removed from public posts or held in detention.
There were condemnations for the detentions and purges in the country from the US, European Union, and international rights organizations.
According to Andrew Gardner, working as a senior Turkey researcher for Amnesty International, said that the state of emergency was used as a tool by the government in Ankara to neutralize legitimate opposition in the country instead of targeting threats to national security.
“It was completely understandable that serious measures needed to be taken after the coup attempt to protect the state’s national security,” Gardner said, but added that the government abused the powers it acquired.
“Independent institutions have been hollowed out, in particular, the judiciary is lacking basic standards of impartiality,” he told news agencies.
He further said that the government needs to stop all those ‘arbitrary detentions and dismissals along with releasing people who were taken into custody or sacked from their posts without convincing evidence against them.
The government responded these allegations by saying that the purges and detentions were done without crossing the rule of law limits and was aimed to remove all of those Gulen’s supporters from government institutions and other offices in the country.
The deputy chairman of the parliament’s Justice Commission, Yilmaz Tunc, said that the lifting of the Emergency rule would make a great difference in changing daily life routine in the country.
“The two-year state of emergency did not affect the lives of regular citizens – and they will remain unaffected. The process was about terror groups and people related to them,” said Tunc, who is also a member of parliament for Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
“However, it might still psychologically create a positive environment, particularly in terms of the economy. Turkey will keep fighting against terror groups within the boundaries of law, without any negative effects on its average citizens,” he told news agencies.
The detentions across the country were also targeted towards the opposition party, namely Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) (pro-Kurdish), including Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. They both were the party’s leaders at the time back in November 2016.
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