Government decrees.

03-Sep-2020

Turkey’s Constitutional Court cancels Erdoğan decree for first time

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled to annul an article of a presidential decree for the first time since a new executive presidential system entered into force after elections in June 2018, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued the decree in question right after the election. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had appealed against the order, which had set out the organisational structure of the presidency, asking Turkey’s top court to cancel several articles.

Judges announced their verdict on Thursday, rejecting the CHP’s appeal save for one article, Cumhuriyet said.  The article it annulled had allowed the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to make payments in advance to contractors involved in promotional activities abroad, the newspaper said.

Turkey extends state of emergency commission mandate for a year

A presidential decree published on Thursday extended the term of a commission set up by the government to examine complaints from individuals who were adversely affected by government decree laws during a two-year state of emergency (OHAL) in Turkey, the Diken news website reported.

The commission still has some 28,000 cases to review, according to the report.

It has received a total of 126,300 applications, of which it has delivered rulings on 98,300, or 78 percent.

Of the cases reviewed, the commission has only approved 9,600.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government declared a state of emergency in the wake of a failed coup on July 15, 2016 that remained in effect until July 19, 2018.

During the state of emergency, the government issued a series of government decrees, known as KHKs, through which thousands of academics, politicians, teachers, doctors, other public sector workers, businesspeople, artists and journalists were purged over real or alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of being behind the failed coup. The movement strongly denies any involvement in it.

The commission accepts complaints regarding dismissal from public service, jobs or organizations; dismissal from university and the loss of student status; closure of associations, organizations, unions, federations, confederations, private health institutions, private education institutions, private institutions of higher education, private radio and TV organizations, newspapers and magazines, news agencies, publication houses and distribution channels; and the loss of retiree ranking through government decrees.

The Ministry of Justice announced in 2017 that with the establishment of the commission, some 12,600 cases that were awaiting review at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had been dropped by the court.

Critics expressed suspicion over the commission’s ability to serve justice.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Şenal Sarıhan in July 2017 claimed that the commission was a “stillborn child.”

“This is also a deception of the ECtHR which thinks this is a functioning domestic remedy. With this regulation, people are both prevented from getting results from the ECtHR and making individual applications at Turkey’s Constitutional Court,” Sarıhan added.

The commission has been described by İbrahim Kaboğlu, a prominent constitutional law professor who is also a purge victim, as the AKP’s “gas chamber.”

Turkey to subsidise meat in effort to control prices

Turkey’s government is willing to provide up to 150 million liras ($25.4) in meat subsidies this year to curb price fluctuations, said a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on Thursday.

The subsidies will cover price differences that occur as a result of sales and purchases of the Meat and Milk Institution. The institution has a regulating role in the livestock sector and is responsible of ensuring stable development of the national livestock industry by promoting livestock breeding.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is to issue a directive that will detail the conditions for the subsidy. Read the full article

"Terror veto" introduced for public tenders

The Turkish parliament has passed into law a decree that allows intelligence personnel, police and
other civil servants to report companies or individuals for links to terrorism or organised crime in order to disqualify them from obtaining public tenders, secularist newspaper Sözcü said .

The change also absolves those making the reports from all legal responsibilities arising from them and makes it illegal to reveal their identities.

Özgür Özel, a deputy for the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), criticised the bill for giving effective immunity to those who might abuse it.

“What would someone who had never had any contact or link to a terrorist organisation do if they were banned from a public tender by a secret report?” he asked.

“What if an allegation were made, and this were done in order to interfere in a commercial matter?”

The change is the 43rd law or decree to alter Law 4734 on Public Tenders since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Source