Along with crimes that are classified as terrorism worldwide, under the draft law, similar acts in Turkey now include: prostitution, smuggling and human trafficking, drugs and arms trafficking, credit card forgery, environmental pollution, hacking of computer systems, intentional homicide, and obstruction of access to education.
The new law restricts the right to defense of detained and remanded persons, but at the same time grants law enforcement agencies greater powers, including for surveillance and wiretapping. Additionally, it allows the police to use firearms against individuals who do not comply with an order to stop resisting and surrender.
Criminal prosecution is also envisaged for persons who publish in the press appeals and statements of terrorist organizations, as well as those "propagating their ideas." Moreover, the draft law provides for large fines for print media and suspension of newspaper publication for up to 15 days.
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that "the purpose of drawing up the new law on countering terror is to separate citizens from terrorists." "No one should have any doubt that the government will make the slightest concessions in the fight against terrorism. We are facing an enemy, a terrorist group (the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party), which is trying in every way to sabotage our development process," the newspaper Cumhuriyet quotes Gul as saying.
The draft law may provoke sharp criticism in the European Union, local media believe. "The government has taken one of the most problematic decisions in the EU integration process by expanding the definition of crimes falling under terrorism," the newspaper Milliyet comments on the draft law. "One of the most important changes in Turkey's EU integration process was the abolition of the notorious eighth article of the anti-terrorism law, which punished propaganda of separatism. A number of provisions of the new draft law very much resemble it," writes Radikal.
Based on materials from RIA Novosti.