...

Security package - political need of Turkey

Türkiye Materials 27 February 2015 22:00 (UTC +04:00)
We know parliamentary election are to take place in Turkey in June, which makes it all the more necessary to adopt a package of reforms aimed at ensuring the safety of the population.
Security package - political need of Turkey

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.27
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

We know parliamentary election are to take place in Turkey in June, which makes it all the more necessary to adopt a package of reforms aimed at ensuring the safety of the population.

The Grand National Assembly (parliament) of Turkey postponed the discussion of the package on three occasions, but on Feb. 26, the parliament adopted 26 articles, the entire reform package.

Among the reforms are the tightening of punishment for the sale or consumption of drugs; the police will have the right to detain suspects for 48 hours, and to use Molotov cocktails during protests is prohibited, according to these articles.

Turkish opposition parties have already protested against the new package of reforms, accusing the government of converting the country into a police state.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said back in October 2014 in the midst of the protests of supporters of the PKK in some southeastern provinces of the country that a series of reforms to ensure the safety of the population would be implemented in Turkey.

And it means that the package of reforms is aimed mainly at prevention of any action against the state.

It is obvious that the authorities are not ruling out that serious political unrest is possible before the parliamentary election in Turkey. The prime minister also confirmed it, and he did not rule out that the opposition might provoke unrest in anticipation of the parliamentary election.

Given the plans of the ruling party in case of victory in parliamentary election, one can say that new political unrest is very real.

In case of victory in parliamentary election, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) having gained a sufficient number of seats (400 members), first plans to vote to adopt a new constitution, which will make it possible to move from a parliamentary republic to a presidential one.

Such a change in governing structure does not meet the interests of Turkey's opposition parties.
If the Justice and Development Party fails to adopt a new constitution in the parliament, it is possible that after the approval of the new composition of the government, the country will hold a referendum on a new constitution.

It should be noted that 31 political parties are to take part in the parliamentary election in Turkey. However, it is expected that the main competition will be between the Justice and Development Party and Republican People's Party.

But if the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party manages to overcome the 10 percent barrier and get seats in the parliament, it will become the main opposition in the country.

The Peoples' Democratic Party and the leftist forces have repeatedly proven to the government their political influence in the country's southeastern provinces by organizing actions.

Taking this into account, one could predict that the Turkish government would by all means try to achieve the complete adoption of the package of measures for security that can be regarded as self-defense for the Justice and Development Party.

However, regarding the essence of the new package of reforms, some articles in it should be evaluated positively in terms of interests and security of the country's population.

One of the paragraphs says that biometric ID cards will be issued in Turkey. These ID cards will contain information about their holders and Turkish citizens will be able to carry out a number of operations with these cards.

It will be possible to use these ID cards not only in state institutions, but also for paying for various services, cash withdrawals at ATMs, use of electronic signatures.

Moreover, by presenting the biometric ID card to a police officer, Turkish citizens will be able to give testimony at the scene and not have to go to the police station.

Edited by CN

---

Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

Tags:
Latest

Latest