ANTITERRORIST LAW

Antiterrorist Law: translation

(Turkey)

   Article 8 of the Antiterrorist Law, which entered into force in 1991, made it possible to consider academics, intellectuals, and journalists speaking up peacefully for Kurdish rights and other causes in Turkey to be engaging in terrorist acts punishable by imprisonment. Although Article 8 has been subsequently modified, human rights abuses against those advocating Kurdish rights and democracy continue in Turkey.

   A new, problematic Antiterrorism Law (TMY) entered into force in 2006. According to its critics, its definition of terrorism was too vague. For example, Article 6 of this new law had the potential to make anybody who expressed an idea contrary to the official state ideology guilty of being a terrorist. Terrorist offenses were broadened to include the carrying of an emblem, signs, or placards of a terrorist organization and attempting to conceal one's identity during a demonstration. More positively, however, Turkey's European Union (EU) accession process has lessened the effect of this law.