ANKARA
The withdrawn articles of the new internal security bill, which was sent to the Turkish parliament’s lower committee to be discussed again Thursday, were removed from the proposed legislation completely.
The controversial domestic security bill was prepared by the government after a series of protests accusing the Turkish government of allegedly not doing enough to save the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani from Daesh in October 2014. The protests left more than 40 people dead.
The first form of the draft legislation consisted of 132 articles and debates had begun on Feb. 17.
On March 12, Meral Aksener, acting parliament speaker, announced that after an appeal by the interior minister, some 63 articles of the bill, which had yet to be debated, were referred back to the parliament’s lower committee.
On March 13, 67 of the 132 articles were approved by parliament.
The Turkish parliamentary affairs commission gathered under the presidency of AK Party MP Mehmet Ersoy and discussed withdrawing some of the domestic security bill’s articles.
The commission decided to remove 63 articles after intense debates with opposition parties, who say the proposed law allegedly curbs down individual rights and freedoms.
The adopted part of the reform package, which had been debated in parliament and approved bit by bit, criminalizes participating in protests with covered faces and makes the possession of Molotov cocktails punishable by up to five years behind bars.
