Turkish Government Makes Concessions

• 03.13.2015, 19:01
•  Region,  Near East,  World

The Turkish Government suddenly withdrew from Parliament the controversial Homeland Security bill and sent it back to the Committee for further revision, Anadolu reports. The bill consists of 130 articles, some of which has already been approved by the Parliament. However, the Minister of Interior asked for the remaining  63 articles in the bill to be sent to a parliamentary committee before its discussions start.

It should be noted that the Security Bill contains such provisions, which, according to opponents, will turn Turkey into a police state. Opponents of the law say that the purpose of the law is to prevent the repetition of the Gezi park protests and different activities of Kurds.

According to the Bill, the police will get more powers. However, the Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu and the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that these measures are consistent with the EU standards and are necessary for the protection of freedoms.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News writes that sending the controversial Security Bill back to the Committee may mean that the Turkish government is willing to make some concessions to the opposition. It should not be excluded that with the resumption of the Kurdish peace process the government tries to soften the position of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's People's Party (HDP), which is against the bill. On the eve of Nevrus, it is expected that a progress in the Kurdish peace process will be seen and it is possible that the government does not want to put that process at risk. One of the leaders of HDP, Demirtas has repeatedly stated that this bill contradicts the development of democracy and social peace in Turkey.