Partisan Political Police Force

Turkey's political Islamist government's last push to clear a controversial security bill through Parliament amid the opposition's efforts to filibuster the assembly is nothing but an effort to reorganize the police and gendarmerie for the purpose of creating a fascist police state rather than maintaining public order and consolidating democratic values.

In fact, that was the abridged version of what Turkish lawmaker and former judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Ali Rıza Öztürk said recently of the bill. He said the legislative proposal is a clear instance of fascist state practices, adding that “the authority to impose a penalty on people will be taken from the judiciary and transferred to the police.” The former judge at the Strasbourg-based rights court then moved to compare the government's initiative to Germany's Hitler-era practices.

In fact, the letter and sprit of the draft bill clearly violate the values and benchmarks that are required of police and other law enforcement agencies in a democratic society that is governed by the rule of law and a respect for fundamental rights. Empowering the police with judicial functions and making it difficult for the accused to challenge police actions before judicial authorities are against the core principles of the Council of Europe (CoE), of which Turkey is a full member, as well as political criteria set up by the European Union, of which Ankara has long been aspiring to become a member.

The real motive behind this highly controversial bill that created an uproar at home and abroad is to create a partisan political police force that is necessary to sustain the authoritarian regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The draft bill's objective is not to compose an effective police force that is representative of the whole society and that is placed under democratic oversight, but rather to fill the police force with only political Islamists and ideological zealots who will do the bidding of Erdoğan and his allies in government. The exclusionary approach at the expense of reaching out to diverse groups in the country is clearly visible in the spirit of the bill.

That is why the government has been doing away with decades-long tradition and established practices in the police department, revisiting the education, training, promotion and disciplinary procedures to pave the way for an influx of partisan people into the police service. The successful police academies that have been providing tutoring and education for police chiefs will be shut down. A new force will be created with new applicants with only a few months of training so that Islamists will be able to reign over the country's main law enforcement agency.

In the bill, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) removes some of the existing legislative safeguards on the abuse of police powers that are already problematic in Turkey, given the terrible record recently on police violations of fundamental rights. What is more, the AKP regards the police as a private militia to protect partisan and political interests rather than as the law enforcement agency to secure order in a democratic society. The discriminatory approach for the police in protecting only members of the AKP and the ruling party's buildings in troubled regions at the expense of other opposition political parties is telling of where the country is heading.

Moreover, there is little accountability in the police force these days as the executive, legislative and even judicial oversight has all ceased functioning. Therefore, the delicate balance between rights, freedoms and liberties on the one side and a need for security in a democratic state on the other has seriously been put into jeopardy. The proportionality principle in weighing security against freedoms was simply discarded in the draft bill, which actually reflects the general trend in the political Islamist government's heavy-handed crackdown on the opposition, dissent and criticisms over the past couple of years.
When the bill gets approved in Parliament, it will undoubtedly be signed into law by President Erdoğan, allowing the Turkish government to start wielding these powers against its opponents especially in areas such as running criminal investigations, detentions and the search and seizure of people and their property. Removing prior authorizations by the judge during the exercise of these new police powers, especially in surveillance and wiretapping that run a high risk of violations of rights of citizens, will certainly deal a big blow to the democratic credentials of Turkey.

In short, the newly overhauled police force will turn into a tool at the hands of the government to oppress political parties, civil society groups, religious groups, businesses and any other political, ideological or social group that is not supportive of the Erdoğan regime in Turkey.

These valid concerns have prompted action by many stakeholders in Turkey from media to bar associations, from unions to public advocacy and interest groups. The EU, the CoE and the United States have all reacted adversely to the draft bill.

"Increasing the security of citizens is a legitimate purpose, but must be accomplished in strict adherence to universal fundamental rights and freedoms and European standards,” Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, said of the bill.

“We are very concerned about this [bill],” Thomas Melia, deputy assistant secretary of state in the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), told reporters last week in Ankara. “We share the concern, with many others, that this may lead to some overzealous prosecution of things that might not otherwise be prosecuted.” He added that stronger police powers such as detention based on reasonable suspicion may be used against people in peaceful protests. “We hope that it will be revisited,” he added.

In a statement last month, CoE Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks also warned that the government-sponsored security package runs the risk of increasing human rights violations in Turkey and has urged Parliament to reconsider the proposal in light of comparable international standards.

“I think in particular that any widening of the powers of the police to use firearms, to use force during demonstrations, to stop and check, or to apprehend suspects at their own initiative without judicial authorization, would bear the risk of increasing the likelihood of human rights violations, notably with respect to the right to life, the right to freedom of assembly, and the right to respect for private life,” Muiznieks warned.

As in the case of many controversial bills enacted in the rubberstamping Parliament, all these friendly warnings will fall on deaf ears in the Turkish capital while the Erdoğan regime moves fast to transform Turkey into a dictatorial regime that is powered by new and expansive police powers.
On the positive side, this draconian measure shows the Erdoğan regime must be desperate and is facing more challenges in the governance of the country. Perhaps the bill will seal the fate of the Erdoğan regime as it will trigger more resistance and pushback from the vibrant and diversified Turkish society.

ABDULLAH BOZKURT (Cihan/Today's Zaman)