Turkey puts an end to the two-year emergency but seeks to keep some powers, Europe News & Top Stories



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ISTANBUL (AFP) – The state of emergency decreed by Turkey after the failure of the 2016 coup d'état ended Thursday, July 19, but the opposition fears that it will be replaced by even more repressive legislative measures.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the state of emergency on July 20, 2016, five days after the bombing of Ankara and bloody clashes erupted in Istanbul in a coup d'etat sentenced that killed the lives of 249 people

The Anadolu state agency said the government had decided not to seek an extension of eight times. The largest purge of modern Turkey's history has targeted not only alleged supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher, blamed for the detention of some 80,000 people and about double that number. The coup d'etat, but also militants and leftists Kurds.

Former leaders of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (HDP) – Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas – still languish in jail after their arrest in November 2016 for

SAME MEASURES, DIFFERENT NAMES

During the election campaign from last month, that he won, Erdogan promised that the state of emergency would end.

But the opposition was irritated by the government's submission. new legislation in parliament that apparently seeks to formalize some of the hardest aspects of the emergency.

The bill, described as "anti-terrorist" legislation by the pro-government media, will be discussed at committee level on Thursday and then in plenary session on Monday

The main Republican party of the people of the country. opposition (CHP) said the new measures would constitute the state of emergency by their own means.

"With this bill, with the measures in this text, the state of emergency will not be extended for three months, but for three years," said the head of the parliamentary faction of CHP, Ozgur Ozel.

"They give the impression of lifting the emergency but according to the bill, the authorities will retain for three more years the power to dismiss officials found to be linked to terrorist groups, while retaining the power to Key.

Demonstrations and rallies will be prohibited in open public spaces after sunset, although they may be permitted until midnight if they do not disrupt the night. Public order.

Local authorities may prohibit entry or exit from a defined area for 15 days for security reasons.

And a suspect may be detained without charge for 48 hours or up to a day. to four days in the case of multiple offenses.

This period can be extended up to twice.if there are difficulties Indeed, Fotis Filippou, deputy director of the Europe to Amnesty International, said that by name Many powers of the state of emergency would remain in force.

). Some commentators have suggested that the end of the state of emergency could signal the release of US pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained in a Turkish prison for nearly two years for terrorism charges, in a case that raised tensions with Washington

but at Brunson's last hearing Wednesday, the court ordered that he remain in jail. THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM WILL NOT STOP

The authorities have not hesitated to use the special powers of the state of emergency until the last days.

Following a decree of July 8, 18,632 people were fired from among them police officers – the move arrived only two weeks after Erdogan was re-elected under a new system that gives him more powers than any Turkish leader since the aftermath of the Second World War.

The new executive presidency means that government ministries and public institutions are now centralized under the direct control of the presidency.

Erdogan says that it is necessary to have a more effective government, but the opposition claims to have placed Turkey under direct control. "The end of the state of emergency does not mean that our fight against terrorism will end," said Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul

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