Our new research, Law Changes, Oppression Remains: Turkey’s Counter-Terrorism Legislation since 1980 will be published very soon. Unfortunately, the publication will be available in Turkish for the time being. We are organizing an online panel on Friday, July 12 to present and discuss this research. On the occasion of this panel, which will be live-streamed in English too, we hope to discuss the “fight against terrorism” phenomenon in Turkey and the related legislation from different perspectives.

Law Changes, Oppression Remains traces Turkey’s counter-terrorism legislation, which has been at the root of the repression against dissenting voices in Turkey since 1980. Taking the September 12 military coup d’état as a milestone, the research examines the political climate leading up to the drafting and enactment of Turkey’s Counter-Terrorism Law, which entered into force in the spring of 1991. The study then chronologically examines how different rights movements were criminalized by its implementation and how laws were instrumentalized to enable systematic judicial harassment in the period following the law’s enactment.

During this week’s online panel, we will follow this historical trajectory and discuss how counter-terrorism legislation continues to preserve its essence despite judicial reforms it has undergone, from the perspective of those it targets.

Presentation: Burcu Ballıktaş Bingöllü, Emel Ataktürk Sevimli, Özlem Zıngıl