A new bill extending state of emergency rules for three years was approved by the Turkish Parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee on Tuesday, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing local media.
The legislation, proposed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was passed in committee with the votes of the AKP and its far-right ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
The bill extends emergency measures governing the dismissal of civil servants by the government and providing extra pre-detention periods to security authorities for people who are taken into custody as part of terrorism investigations.
Thousands of people were removed from their jobs, detained or jailed during a state of emergency declared in the aftermath of a failed coup on July 15, 2016. The purge hit followers of the faith-based Gülen movement the hardest.
The government finally ended the state of emergency in June 2018 after extending it seven times.
The AKP government issued many controversial decrees during the state of emergency that continue to affect the lives of many.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on February 20 that a total of 622,646 people have been the subject of investigation and 301,932 have been detained, while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup. The minister said there are currently 25,467 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed on alleged links to the movement.
The government removed more than 130,000 civil servants from their jobs on alleged Gülen links following the coup attempt.