Page 4 - bne_newspaper_July_27_2018

Top Stories
July 27, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
Turkey approves security law to replace emergency rule
amid ugly scenes
in parliament
The European Union on July 19 welcomed the ending of the prolonged state of emergency but noted that the powers introduced under the new executive presidential system were excessive and worrying.
During the debate in parliament held on July 23, Ahmet Sik, an investigative journalist who has be- come an Istanbul MP representing the opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP), was verbally at- tacked by furious ruling AKP MPs, who hurled foul language at him. Deputy parliamentary speaker Mustafa Sentop then turned off his microphone and he was unable to complete his speech at the rostrum.
Alpay Ozalan, a former footballer and newly-elect- ed MP of the ruling coalition Justice and Develop- ment Party (AKP), reportedly told Sik: “I have my eyes on you” during the ugly scenes. Ozalan was a defender famous for his man-marking skills. Sik later tweeted: “I have my words on you”.
The parliament voted to ban Sik from the next two sessions in response to his use of the words “immorality” and “shamelessness” while describ- ing the government's policies.
In defence of Sik, HDP caucus deputy chairperson Fatma Kurtulan said that Sik’s statements were from the perspective of ethical values and did not personally target any AKP MPs.
Sik later told the daily Evrensel that he used the words “shamelessness” and “immorality” to de- fine the government’s way of conducting politics
and that he was not a person who would make insinuations about anybody’s private life. Sik also said that he would continue to deliver speeches in the parliament.
In releasing a photo of his response in the chamber to Sik, Ozalan quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favourite Islamist poet, Necip Fazil Kisakurek, tweeting: “If keeping you alive
is to die for you, I die one thousand times, I shall not let pass a slur on your name, the flag and the vexillum are pride and honour, I shall not let the cruel laugh!”
Sik spent 375 days in jail pending trial from March 3, 2011 to March 12, 2012. His case was part of the Ergenekon trials during which the public prosecutor Zekeriya Oz, currently a fugitive sought for the trials centred on what the government describes as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organiza- tion (FETO), decided that Sik’s unpublished book, entitled “Imam’s Army” and referring to now self-exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, was proof of Sik’s membership of Ergenekon, an alleged ultra- nationalist organisation.
The then PM, now executive president, Er- dogan, defended the arrest of Sik, saying “some books are more dangerous than bombs”.
On March 30, 2011, Oz, who led the so-called Ergenekon coup investigations, was promoted, assigned as a deputy chief state prosecutor in Istanbul and removed from the Ergenekon case.
"Around 100 journalists are currently [serving time] in prison, but freedom of expression is not merely a problem for journalists in this coun- try," Sik told local media upon his release on March 12, 2012. "There are currently about 600 university students [behind bars] and over 6,000 under arrest in the KCK [Kurdistan Communities Union] trials [...]. We are going to keep waging this struggle."
Later on, Sik spent another 15 months in jail pending trial together with colleagues from oppo-