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New Law Threatens Future of Turkish NGOs

Dorian Jones

   ISTANBUL - Nearly 680 non-governmentalorganizationsin Turkeyhave
   condemnedanew law aimed at increasing oversight ofthem, with critics
   saying itthreatens to silence one of thecountry'slast independent and
   critical voices.

   "It's creating a huge chilling effect," saidYamanAkdeniz, co-founder of
   the Freedom of Expression Society, "They [government] want to create
   fear, and it has been successful so far with this law;there is fear in
   civil society."

   The controversialmeasuretook effectthree weeks ago,shortly after it
   received parliamentary approval. The lawostensibly seeks to comply with
   a United Nations Security Council demand on preventing the financing of
   terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.'¯

   But international rights groups accuse the governmentof President Recep
   Tayyip Erdoganof using the reformas a means tosilence critical NGOs.

   "The law calls itself one thing, fighting proliferationofweapons of
   mass destruction. But within this law is this ulterior motive of going
   after NGO's on a rather wide basis," said senior Turkey researcher Emma
   Sinclair Webb, of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

   The rights group saidthe measure was rushed to parliamentDecember
   18"without consultation with the civil society organizations it will
   affect most."HRW also saidin a recent statement thatonly six of the
   law's 43 articles include means and regulations to combat the financing
   of terrorism.

   Under the new law, if any NGO board member or professional employee is
   put on trial on terrorism offenses, the Interior Ministry or a judge
   can appoint a "trustee" to run the NGO for the durationof the court
   case.

   "This system does not operate on the presumption of innocence until
   proven guilty," said Akdeniz. "Being prosecuted is enough for the court
   to appoint a trustee. When that person takes control of the
   association, ifthere isany funding, that trustee will spend it as they
   wish. For example, the first thing a government trustee can do is to
   sack the employees and replace them, and this will completely change
   the NGO."'¯

   The government has widely used trustees to replace elected mayors in
   Turkey'spredominantly Kurdish southeast. Dozens of mayors of the
   pro-Kurdish HDP have been removed following the launching of terrorism
   investigations.

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