The regulation known as \u201cinfluence agency\u201d, which the government has been trying to add to the law for some time and which expands the scope of the crime of espionage, continues to be a subject of debate.
\nDespite the backlash, the government and its partner MHP have not given up on the regulation.<\/p>\n
As a result, the Notary Public Law Proposal, which includes the regulation, will be discussed in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly this week.<\/p>\n
Ali \u00d6zg\u00fcnd\u00fcz, a former prosecutor and one-time CHP deputy in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, has issued important warnings on this issue.<\/p>\n
\u00d6zg\u00fcnd\u00fcz, in a statement made on his Twitter account, said, \u201cThis regulation on the crime of \u2018influence agency\u2019, which is intended to be added to the Turkish Penal Code, is a very dangerous and vague regulation that could make everyone who thinks, expresses their thoughts, writes, speaks, and objects to the practices of the government a \u2018potential defendant\u2019,\u201d and continued his warnings as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf enacted into law, freedom of expression, the right to engage in political activity, the right to hold meetings and demonstrations, and freedom of the press will be seriously harmed. Because who will determine what the \u201dsecurity or internal or external political interests of the state\u201d in the definition of the crime is?! The government!.<\/p>\n
\u00d6ztun\u00e7 continued his warnings as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cWho will determine whether the activity\/action or words spoken are in line with the \u201dstrategic interests of a foreign state or organization\u201d? The government!.<\/p>\n
- For example, when you criticize the government's Syria policy, when you oppose the government's actions in the northern region of Syria with the so-called OS\u00d6 and other armed opposition elements, you can be called acting in accordance with the strategic interests of the Syrian state to the detriment of \u2018the security and foreign political interests of our country\u2019.<\/p>\n
- Again, when you oppose the sale of the Tank\/Palet factory, the government can say \u201dthis is not a sale, it is the transfer of operating rights, and those who oppose this are those who oppose the strengthening of our country's defense industry\u201d, and they can characterize this as an action against our country in favor of other states and make you a suspect\/accused.<\/p>\n
- Or, if you oppose a \u2018settlement process\u2019 with the PKK (or tomorrow the PYD\/YPG) terrorist organization, you may be prosecuted for acting \u2018against the security, domestic and foreign political interests of the state and in the interest of another state\u2019.<\/p>\n
- No matter how much you say \u2018what you are doing is against the security, internal and external interests of the state\u2019, you cannot make your point!.<\/p>\n
- In other words, the legal elements of the crime described are not clear, they are very vague and left to the whim of the government, so to speak.<\/p>\n
\u00d6ztun\u00e7 concluded his allegations as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be pulled in all directions \u2018like a rubber band\u2019 as the popular expression goes. This situation is against the principle of legality of crime. It should never be enacted in this form. Everyone who fights for democracy, the rule of law, rights and freedom should object to this regulation.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former CHP deputy and jurist Ali \u00d6zg\u00fcnd\u00fcz explained the risks of the \u201cAgent of Influence\u201d regulation, which he described as \u201cvery dangerous\" to be added to the Turkish Penal Code<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":278923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15,78],"class_list":{"0":"post-278915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gundem","8":"tag-chp","9":"tag-kemal-kilicdaroglu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278924,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278915\/revisions\/278924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}