With the presidential approval on Friday, Turkey\u2019s new security bill giving broader powers to the country\u2019s intelligence service has now become law.<\/p>\n
The government says the changes were necessary to modernise the security services in order to improve its capabilities to deal with the present day challenges. It is also claimed that the legislation introduces a new element of parliamentary oversight.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the bill say that the changes will move Turkey towards authoritarianism.\u00a0 There are concerns that the new legislation will grant arbitrary use of sweeping new powers to the National Security Organisation (MIT).\u00a0\u00a0 Operational priorities and the legal framework are designed to protect the government by further infringing on privacy and liberty of the citizens.<\/p>\n
In an open society based on rule of the law and freedom of expression, the reason for the existence of an intelligence service is to protect the democratic way of life and liberties of citizens. Their task is to prevent threats to domestic and external security of the country.<\/p>\n
The difference between a police state and a democratic one is the accountability of its security apparatus.<\/p>\n
A credible oversight in order to prevent abuses of power both by the intelligence agency and the executive that controls it is what is missing from the new legislation in Turkey.<\/p>\n
For an intelligence organisation to work within the law, you need constant and transparent oversight. The oversight of security apparatus should not be only the ministerial and parliamentary oversight but also a judicial one.<\/p>\n
According to the new law, the proposed \u201cSecurity and Intelligence Commission \u201cof the Parliament, overseeing the MIT will review the performance of the intelligence organisation, based on a report submitted to it by the office of the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
The report will not contain any information or data that is considered a state secret.\u00a0 Thus, the Commission\u2019s capabilities in order to fulfil their role as overseers are limited. It lacks the statutory power to require the information it needs to fulfil its function.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the parliamentary oversight will not have the internationally accepted standard of independence from the executive.\u00a0 The Parliamentary Commission\u2019s jurisdiction covers not only the MIT but the police, the gendarmerie and the security and intelligence activities of the Financial Crime Investigation Board as well.<\/p>\n
In any case, as a result of a hasty change of legislation in February 2012, it is the Prime Minister alone who has the authority to give permission to prosecute the head of MIT and other top intelligence service officials. The undersecretary who heads the MIT can only be tried by the Court of Appeals. \u00a0The new law gives even greater immunity to all top agents from prosecution than the previous one.<\/p>\n
Other contentious elements of the new legislation concern rules governing foreign operations. The law permits\u00a0\u00a0 M\u0130T to conduct operations against possible threats outside the country after authorisation by the Cabinet.\u00a0 The MIT will be able to establish contacts with local and foreign institutions, organizations, movements or individuals.<\/p>\n
Under the new legislation, the MIT is given new powers to demand documents, data and recordings from state bodies, non- governmental organisations, private companies and banks. As well as individuals, this worries private companies over the confidentiality of their commercial secrets.<\/p>\n
The change in law has serious consequences for the freedom of information and the freedom of the media, too.\u00a0 Journalists who publish classified MIT documents could face a prison sentence of up to 10 years.<\/p>\n
In most democratic countries, the loss of individual privacy is the most immediate concern in the present debate about surveillance and better ways of preventing this state power from being abused are being widely discussed.<\/p>\n
In Turkey, with a system of checks and balances not existing, the changes to legislation are seen as another step towards strengthening the power of the executive. Or to be more precise,\u00a0 to afford better protection for the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s rule and to further repress any kind of dissent.<\/p>\n
The MIT legislation is the latest change that will widen the gap between the democratic ideals and the present reality in today\u2019s Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the presidential approval on Friday, Turkey\u2019s new security bill giving broader powers to the country\u2019s intelligence service has now become law. The government says the changes were necessary to modernise the security services in order to improve its capabilities to deal with the present day challenges. It is also claimed that the legislation introduces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}