Erdogan suspends parliament's act to avenge Turkish opposition
Tuesday 19/May/2020 - 04:37 PM
Sarah Waheed
With repressive practices that violate Turkey’s laws and constitution, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deservedly merits the title of dictator, especially when it comes to dealing with opposing voices. The Turkish president recently suspended parliament sessions, taking advantage of the corona crisis in order to manipulate legislative authority due to his inability to confront the forces opposing his authoritarian decisions.
General amnesty law
On April 14, the Turkish parliament passed the General Amnesty law authorizing the release of tens of thousands of prisoners in order to ease prison overcrowding and protect detainees from being infected with the corona virus. But this law has been criticized for excluding those imprisoned on terrorism charges, namely journalists, activists and politicians opposing the Turkish president.
The law provides for amendments that allow those who have been sentenced to a total of 10 years, including thieves, drug traffickers, those accused of sexual crimes, mafia members, and murders to spend the remainder of the sentence outside of prison after the approval of the sentencing judge.
The amendments also stipulated reducing the requirement of early amnesty for those imprisoned for sexual violence and drug trafficking to be applied to those who have spent 65% of their sentence, instead of the 75% currently in effect.
The amendments would benefit 100,000 people, among whom 60,000 convicted of drug crimes. The law is set to take effect on September 1.
Criticism
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its allied right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supported the bill, which passed in the parliament by 279 votes to 51 votes. The Turkish president was strongly criticized after the bill was passed.
In order for Erdogan to take control of matters again and prevent opposing voices, he issued a decision on April 15 to suspend the work of the Turkish parliament for 45 days following the approval of the law to amend the provisions.
Opposition’s anger
The Turkish parliament has been operating throughout the corona pandemic, while the number of infections in Turkey has reached 65,000, but the suspension did not take place until after the issuance of the General Amnesty law, which angered the Turkish opposition.
Turkish opposition CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused Erdogan of using the corona crisis to manipulate the legislative power.
Kılıçdaroğlu said in a speech that Erdogan's regime suspended parliament sessions for 45 days as part of measures to confront the corona virus only after passing these laws.
He added that they do not understand the reason behind the desire to suspend the parliament’s sessions during this period, other than that the AKP and MHP passed the amnesty law, so now there is no need for the parliament at this time.
Dictator
Turkish political analyst Jawdat Kamel told the Reference that Erdogan suspended the Turkish parliament until May 5, using the corona pandemic as the supposed reason, but the real reason is that the president wants to prevent the attacks that were launched against him from the opposition.
