Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[martinuzz]

Turkey passed a new law today which removes immunity from legal prosecution for members of parliament. 376 out of 550 members of parliament voted in favour, which means the law passed and does not need a referendum. Only thing left to do is for Erdogan to put his signature under it.

The opposition has been warning that if passed, this law will be used to persecute any member of parliament that sympathises with Kurds.
According to press agenct Associated Press, 138 members of parliament from the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP, and the centrum-left CHP are at risk of being persecuted now.

The leader of HDP has already announced that he will fight the new law in the Constitutional Court (which is kinda pointless, with Erdogan's history of calling the constitutional court's verdicts illegal).

The initiative for the new law came from Erdogan's AKP, after the president had accused HDP of being a political branch of the PKK.
Erdogan has called out for the arrest of HDP party members on grounds of involvement in terrorism multiple times now, and it looks like this new law will remove any obstacles left to actually start doing so.
Before the parliamentary vote, Erdogan said "the people do not want criminal delagates in parliament".

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/turkse-parlementsleden-kunnen-voortaan-worden-vervolgd~a4304629/

In other news, Dutch customs dun goofed. They seized two works of art made by the Bolivian artist Gastón Ugalde. The art was made from coca leaves, which technically is an illegal drug.
The artist however had gone to court, and asked a judge to pass verdict to save the art.

The judge ruled that the art was wrongfully considered as drugs. The layer of vernish over it made it impossible to be used as such.
Alas, the judge's verdict came to late.

When the court informed customs that they should release the art back to the artist, they found out that the works of art had been burned in the incinerator.

Gastón Ugalde is a prominent artist from the Andes mountains. His nickname is Andean Warhol. His art, which has coca leaves as base material, is exhibited all around the globe.

[Antioch]

Pffff, why doesn't he just outlaw all other parties straight away.


One party rule here we come!

[Orange Wizard]

I'm more concerned about why MPs were immune in the first place.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

We have a similar idiocy in Ukraine. Even if MP will open fire with a machinegun we need to get approval of the parliament to detain him and another approval to put him on trial.
 
For the past ~20 years every party on every elections promise to remove this immunity but somehow they never have enough votes...

[Teneb]

There is some immunity over here, in the sense that only the supreme court can judge federal politicians like congressmen and ministers. I actually asked a lawyer (public defender, I think is the correct translation) I am acquainted with about it, and the idea is to prevent some minor judge from the ass-end of nowhere from trying to arrest the president. Considering the I think 3 times some judge from the ass-end of nowhere tried to block whatsapp in the country, it may be a good idea.

[Helgoland]

Pretty much that, yeah - it prevents the courts (or everyone who's willing to make wrongful accusations) from interfering with the political process in an undesirable manner.

[Loud Whispers]

Undesirable on account of whom?

[Orange Wizard]

Politicians, probably

[Loud Whispers]

Wunderbar

[Sergarr]

Undesirable on account of whom?

The three branches of the government are supposed to be independent. Trying to mess with that by making some branch stronger than others (like allowing executive branch to arrest at will every member of legislation one) is bad juju, because it causes concentration of power (Erdogan doesn't like this particular law-maker? to jail with ye!), and that causes dictatorships. Dictatorships are bad, mmkay?

Turkey is going to become one quite soon, anyway, at this rate. One does not simply mass arrest people on Internet for calling the President "Gollum" in a democracy, you know. How many journalists are in Turkey's jails, anyway? I've heard it was some inane number. Military is going to support anyone who allows them to massacre the Kurds at will, and Erdogan so far was their biggest fan. Yes, Turkey is quite certainly going to become a dictatorship, if nothing changes.

[Orange Wizard]

The three branches of the government are supposed to be independent. Trying to mess with that by making some branch stronger than others (like allowing executive branch to arrest at will every member of legislation one) is bad juju

Why the hell would you give the executive branch judicial power? That goes in the hands of the courts, who should be able to arrest politicians who break the law. President included.

[Sergarr]

The three branches of the government are supposed to be independent. Trying to mess with that by making some branch stronger than others (like allowing executive branch to arrest at will every member of legislation one) is bad juju

Why the hell would you give the executive branch judicial power? That goes in the hands of the courts, who should be able to arrest politicians who break the law. President included.

1) Should've said "judicial branch".
2) If you' haven't noticed, Erdogan wants to jail his opposition for talking about Kurds in a vaguely positive manner. I think once country has laws like these, the only thing that prevents it from descending into dictatorship immediately is parliamentary immunity, and that has just been removed, as well.

[Orange Wizard]

I'm not seeing the connection between "Erdogan wants to do X" and "X will happen" unless the country already is a dictatorship

[Sergarr]

I'm not seeing the connection between "Erdogan wants to do X" and "X will happen" unless the country already is a dictatorship

By saying "Erdogan wants to do X", I've meant that "There are laws passed by Erdogan's government that have the effect of doing X". It's not a dictatorship, yet.

[Antioch]

I'm not seeing the connection between "Erdogan wants to do X" and "X will happen" unless the country already is a dictatorship

It has already stated by Erdogan himself before the bill passed that it will be used to persecute Kurdish HDP members.

Since members of parliament who are in jail can't vote, that's pretty darn handy if you want to get rid of the opposition.