It seemed so, in May of this year, but in the end it was no. Then, at the beginning of November, the same law sounded again: the Turkish president’s parliamentary group, Recep Tayyip Erdoganwas finishing the text, whose vote would be imminent. But the approval of the new Turkish law against “foreign agents” You’ll have to wait.
This wait, however, seems somewhat short. Following in the wake of Russia y Georgiathe Anatolian country is in the process of imitating its two neighbors who, in recent years, have used this type of legislation to persecute and criminalize a journalists y activists.
Last week, the law was presented and directly withdrawn from the Turkish Parliament: anonymous deputies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP in its Turkish acronym) of Erdogan assured the Turkish press that, in the face of enormous social criticismthe government party has decided to give a margin of time to the opposition to present their own points and changes to the law.
“If they don’t do it,” said this anonymous source, “the text will soon be approved as it is.” Erdogan holds the absolute majority in Parliament thanks to his coalition with the Turkish ultranationalist party MHP.
According to the text, “anyone who commits a crime in line with the strategic interests or instructions of a foreign country or organization will be sentenced to a sentence of between three and seven years of imprisonment.” jail“. The Government has assured throughout the legislative process that the new text only aims to persecute the foreign espionage in Türkiye.
Problematic gaps
But the text raises many doubts. “There is not only legal problems with the proposed law, but also many problems of logic and language in its proposed articles. When you read the text, you don’t really understand what they want to achieve. It’s not clear at all,” he explains. Veysel Oklawyer specialized in press freedom and director of the Association of Media and Legal Studies from Türkiye.
“There are already more than 10 laws in our country that talk about foreign espionage. For this reason, I think the biggest problem with what is happening is that it is not understood why it is necessary to create another article in reference to the issue. For Who is this new law aimed at?” Ok asks rhetorically, considering that the new text could have a great impact against companies, journalists y activists with ties abroad.
Silence, censorship and insults
This new legislation, say activists and defenders of the human rightsis not the only one in the hands of the Turkish Government to persecute opponents and journalists. In 2022, Erdogan’s party designed and passed a law to “fight against disinformation and fake news” that has served to fine and limit the work of opposition media.
Thus, when a major event occurs, a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, Ankara can declare a informative veto in relation to what happened: from that moment on, the Turkish media can only report what happened using official sources and the Government. Reporting, collecting your own information and publishing it, therefore, becomes a illegal act until the veto is lifted.
There are more similar laws: in recent years, the Turkish Executive has harshly applied an old legislation that penalizes the act of insult the president. In 2023, according to official statistics, more than 18,000 people were investigated for allegedly having committed this crime.
“With this new law, if an academic or a journalist finds foreign funding for an investigation they will be labeled a ‘foreign agent.'” authoritarianism It is contagious and they learn from themselves. The Lord Putin has the original patent for this type of law,” the opposition leader declared this week, Özgür Özel. “They want this law to be the garrote against the criticism. “I call on all our deputies to do everything possible to prevent it from being approved.”
“This new text will make it easier to classify and punish any opponent of the Government as a foreign spy. It will make the people punished under this new law wear a cross on their back. It will make them the object of all types of physical and online attacks” , consider Ok. “It even seems that this new text may be harsher than those already approved in Russia, ChinaGeorgia and Kyrgyzstan“.
