Turkish Government Plans Further Restrictions After End Of Urgency

There is no party at night. As at one o'clock in the morning the local time expires the state of emergency, it is serious in the country. Turkey slept for the first hours without the "Olaganüstü Hal" (OHAL), "the extraordinary state" that had severely affected the lives of tens of thousands of Turks. Many Turks had believed before the deadline that life in "the normal state" does not bring any change anyway. For days in social media, word games turned as follows: "OHAL is going, but O HAL is coming" – "The state of emergency is at stake, but" this state come ".

With this state, they subordinate their daily lives to the primacy of security. Two years have passed since the coup attempt of 2016 – the "fight against terror" remains the thread of Turkish politics.

There is not much time left to get used to the new freedom. Ten hours after the end of the state of emergency, the Judiciary Committee of Parliament meets on Friday morning in Ankara to discuss a new bill aimed at "continuing the fight against terror in his country." normal state ". He seems to want to commit rules that were in a state of emergency also for the future. Restricting the freedom of assembly, making another part of the power of governors from the moment of permanent emergency, another seems to prepare more layoffs of the public service. The law will prolong the state of emergency for years, noted pro-Kurdish opposition party spokesman HDP on Friday bitterly.

The Expansion of Power

But the mood in the country lies between apathy and disinterest. AKP ruling party members say that 70% of Turks have welcomed and wanted the state of emergency. The anti-terrorist program of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has certainly resonated with many people – they reelected him president in the June 24 elections with 52.6% approval.

But governments and human rights organizations criticize Erdogan's use of the state of emergency as a means of extending his power and to silence the critical voices. Can Dündar, exiled in Germany ex-head of the critical government newspaper "Cumhuriyet", tweets from an "empire of fear". The expiry claims announce Friday new lawsuits against "terrorists" of the Gülen movement in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Sakarya and Bolu. President Erdogan blamed preacher Fethullah Gülen for the attempted coup. The state of emergency remains normal

Digging widens

The world reacts much more emotionally than Turkey. The EU mission sends a specific reminder Friday afternoon. We welcome the expiry of the state of emergency. At the same time, the "positive effects would be mitigated" by the planned anti-terrorism law, which would retain "many restrictive elements of the state of emergency". German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas points in the same direction: "There should be no extension of the state of emergency through the back door," he says. That it impressed the Turkish leaders is debatable. Mustafa Yeneroglu, a member of the ruling AKP party, said on Friday that it was "a secondary issue" for Turkey, whether it criticizes the new law or not. "If every week in Germany one person dies in a terrorist attack, then there is another legislation in Germany," he said. "Imagine, every minister should attend the funeral ceremony of a terrorist victim once a week." We must invest in it.

But the gap between Turkey and Europe has been widening after an emergency state of two years. Maybe too wide to blend easily. The lifting of the emergency does not seem to change as much.