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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish parliamentary committee on Thursday began deliberations on new anti-terror legislation that the government says is aimed at dealing with continued security threats, following the lifting of a two-year-long state of emergency.
The state of emergency, declared days after a violent failed coup attempt in 2016, ended in the early hours of Thursday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kept to an election campaign promise not to prolong it.
As soon as it ended, Parliament's Justice Committee started reviewing a draft bill that would allow authorities to press ahead with mass dismissals of civil servants for three years and hold certain suspects in custody for up to 12 days.
Under the legislation, open-air demonstrations would be restricted to daylight unless they do not obstruct "public order," while governors would be allowed to bar people from entering certain areas for security reasons for up to 15 days.
The opposition maintains that the proposals contain measures that amount to the continuation of the state of emergency, which they say the government has used extensively to silence critics and detain opponents including politicians, journalists, academics and activists.
A vote in the general assembly is expected next week.
The European Union on Thursday described the lifting of the state of emergency as a "welcome step" but voiced concerns over the proposed legislation.
"We believe the adoption of new legislative proposals granting extraordinary powers to the authorities and retaining several restrictive elements of the state of emergency would dampen any positive effect of its termination," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the EU's Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Turkey says the anti-terror measures are necessary because it is the target of several "terror" groups, including a network of Gulen supporters, Kurdish rebels and the Islamic State group.
Turkey has used emergency powers to arrest more than 75,000 people for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed by Ankara for the coup. Some 130,000 people were purged from government jobs for alleged links to terror organizations. Gulen denies involvement in the coup attempt.
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