Erdogan steering parliament to muzzle Turkey

Indiana Khaled

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suspended his country’s parliament for 45 days.

His decision came shortly after the Turkish legislature passed into law a bill that will muzzle academics and allow them to be arbitrarily sacked from their jobs.

The new University Law stipulated the closure of the private Istanbul Sehir University for a month. The university is linked to prominent Turkish opposition politician Ahmet Davutoğlu who is the head of the opposition Future Party.

Leader of the Republican People’s Party, the largest opposition party in Turkey, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, described the new law as an attempt by Erdogan to settle his old scores with his political opponents.

“Political conflicts should not be moved to the universities,” Kilicdaroglu said.

Meanwhile, Davutoğlu issued a statement on April 17, in which he accused Erdogan of obliterating freedom of speech and thinking in Turkey.

Turkey, he said, witnessed corruption, oppression and despotism.

Davutoğlu said the lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party approve bills, even without reading them, only to please the Turkish president and the presidential palace.

General amnesty

Before its suspension on April 15, the Turkish parliament approved the general amnesty bill which grants a large number of criminals amnesty, but keeps journalists, opinion prisoners and opposition politicians behind bars.

The bill was submitted to parliament by the Justice and Development Party. The parliament approved it on April 13, even as the opposition parties turned it down.

Killers to be set free

Kilicdaroglu scoffed at the amnesty law, expecting it to give the chance for killers to be released from the prisons.

“Writers will, however, remain in the prisons,” Kilicdaroglu said. “This cannot be accepted.”

He said the new law does away with justice in Turkey because it would keep journalists and politicians behind bars, whereas it would grant criminals freedom.