Turkish Gov’t Does Not Consider Extending Emergency Rule

The Turkish government does not consider extending the state of emergency, which caused a litany of complaints among the public amid extreme restrains on liberties and social mobility in the public domain, after it expires this month.

The government ponders to lift the emergency rule in line with its campaign promise. The clearest and the most recent sign came at the weekend when Mahir Unal, the spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), confirmed that the government would end the regime.

AKP lawmaker Mustafa Elitas said on Monday that it would end by July 18.

After opposition parties and their presidential candidates centered their campaign around the central promise to remove the emergency regime, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reversed his longstanding opposition to the calls demanding the end of the rule that was imposed on July 20, 2016, five days after the botched coup.

Erdogan, toward the end of the presidential campaign, displayed a change of heart and said there would be no need for the extension of the emergency rule for another three months.

Since the aftermath of the failed 2016 coup, more than 160,000 public workers have been summarily discharged from their positions with emergency decrees.

The government has ruled the country with decrees, which have the full force of laws thanks to the country’s emergency laws designed during a military regime after the 1980 military coup, since July 2016.