New Anti-Terrorism Law ‘Cover-Up’ for State of Emergency in Turkey – CHP Party

18:28 GMT, 27 July 2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - New Turkish anti-terrorism bill is nothing but a cover-up for extension of the state of emergency in the country, which officially ended earlier in the week to persuade the world that situation in Turkey returned back to normal, Ozturk Yilmaz, a deputy chair of opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told Sputnik on Friday.

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"This is first of all not democratic. This step is not a democratic step forward but just a cover-up of the current situation and [aimed] to show that the state of emergency ended in Turkey to the world. This is a misperception created by government that normal situation returns to the country," Yilmaz said.

The lawmaker stressed that, on the contrary, the situation in the country has aggravated as the government in fact prolonged the same measures, which had been used during the state of emergency.

"We were expecting the end of the state of emergency completely, without any conditions… But the government has introduced a new bill, which will provide the powers which could only be used in the case of the state of emergency. So that means the state of emergency will continue in the country," Yilmaz added.

Yilmaz said that CHP as the main Turkish opposition party would challenge the new anti-terrorism bill in the Constitutional Court. However, the lawmaker added that he was not sure if the law could be overrun as the court was controlled by the Turkish president.

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On Wednesday, the Turkish parliament approved a new anti-terror bill empowering the government to dismiss employees of the Armed Forces, police and public servants over links to extremist groups. The law also increases powers on detaining suspects for 48 hours without charge. The bill must be approved by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will come into force after publication.

On July 19, Turkey has lifted a state of emergency that had been in place for two years since 2016 failed coup. State of emergency was widely criticized by the Turkish opposition and a number of Western leaders citing threats to the rights and freedoms in Turkey.