Turkey’s parliament voted in favor of extending the government’s emergency rule by a further three months, effective from the 19th of January, which was first imposed in Turkey after a failed military coup attempt on the 15th of July. The emergency rule enables the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms when deemed necessary. Since the failed coup-attempt, Turkey has formally arrested more than 40,000 people, and has suspended more than 100,000 people from their jobs, including soldiers, police officers, teachers, judges and journalists. The extension of emergency rule comes as Turkey reels from a series of deadly attacks by both Islamist and Kurdish militants, most recently on Sunday when a lone gunman shot dead 39 people in a packed Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations – an attack the Islamic State claimed responsibility for. In an address to general assembly ahead of the vote, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus stressed the government’s resolve “to fight against all terrorist organizations”.
“With the attack in Ortakoy, they wanted to give different messages comparing to other terrorist attacks. One of these messages is: ‘We will continue to cause trouble to people in 2017’. Our reply is clear. Regardless of which terrorist organization they are, regardless of by whom they are supported, and regardless of their motivation, we are determined to fight all terrorist organizations in 2017 and we will fight till the end,” said Numan Kurtulmus, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister.