The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has left its devastating mark on 2020. One can safely argue that we are going through an era replete with pandemic that has hit the whole world hard about a century after the Spanish flu in 1919-1920. This period has clearly revealed the true characters of regimes that ruled countries and ended up in their heading towards even more authoritarian practices in countries like Turkey.
The state of emergency (SoE), which was declared on 20 July 2016 on the grounds of armed conflict that broke out on 24 July 2015 and the following failed coup d’état of 15 July 2016 and lifted on 19 July 2018, was rendered permanent through Law No. 7145. Today Turkey is going through an authoritarian era characterized by such SoE regime. The regime in the country was changed through the referendum of 16 April 2017, which was held under the SoE conditions introducing vital constitutional amendments, while this regime was referred to as the “Turkish-type Presidency Model” or the “Presidency Cabinet.” The typical characteristic of this regime is its authoritarian governance perspective. Such government in Turkey attempted to rule the country with its authoritarian practices under the name of various administrative measures and unconstitutional bans when it faced the pandemic. In other words, pandemic management in 2020 was mostly realized through ban decisions taken by the Ministry of Interior and governors’ offices in stark infringement of the “principle of legality.”
While the rights of citizens were restricted within the scope of ban measures taken in response to the pandemic in 2020, the political power did the exact opposite and opted for imposing even more restrictions on rights and freedoms through numerous laws it introduced. The authoritarian regime in the country was even further consolidated through laws like Law No. 7242 on Amendments to the Enforcement Law, Law No. 7245 on Marketplace and Neighborhood Guards, Law No. 7249 that introduced a system of multiple bar associations, Law No. 7252 on the Establishment of Digital Platforms, Law No. 7253 on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet.
The failure to resolve the Kurdish issue and the ongoing armed conflict have unfortunately been seen in 2020 as well. Turkey’s military campaign has been extended so as to cover northern Iraq as of June 2020, while the military tried to control certain regions in northern Iraq following Syria and the conflict zone expanded. The policy of appointing state trustees and disregarding the people’s will in local governments also continued in 2020.
In 2020, Turkey remained under political monitoring initiated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 25 April 2017. The European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) stand towards the substantiality of democracy and human rights problems in Turkey has also proven to be a noteworthy case in point. The court’s violation judgments limited to the cases of Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala have not even been implemented as was due. The fact that the ECtHR, which has been moving away from the principle of rule of law, that it has been constantly pointing to the Constitutional Court in order to avoid deliberating applications from Turkey has laid bare the corrosion in the protection of human rights values. Moreover, it has been observed that the Constitutional Court failed to rule in favor of human rights and engaged in a negative attitude especially when “the national security policies of the state” were at stake. The court’s negative conduct, specifically towards the SoE decree laws and laws, revealed the fact that it has not been an effective domestic remedy to protect human rights. Yet, some partial annulment judgments by the Constitutional Court in 2019 about SoE decree laws which were passed into laws following the end of SoE and the maintenance of this conduct in 2020 can be regarded as hopeful.
2020 witnessed a novel type autocratic regime of liberalism creating profound uncertainties within the permanent SoE with immense restriction and prohibition of the most fundamental rights including freedom of expression, association, assembly and protest. The judiciary itself was used as the most prominent instrument of repression.
Click to read the full report in English: İHD 2020 Violations Report