* Photo: Esra Hacioğlu: Ankara / AA
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Shortly after the Constitutional Court repealed the law article prohibiting demonstrations and protest marches on intercity roads, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu has sharply criticized this annulment.
Soylu addressed the audience in the Opening Ceremony of the Negotiation in Social Incidents Course organized by the Security Department of Directorate General of Security in Ankara yesterday (September 14).
In his speech there, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said:
"Then, you do not need to have police protection. Go to work by bike, then. Go ahead, cycle back and forth to work, we are free, right? Why do you have police protection? Why do you have a police escort? I am in, are you in, Mr. President of the Constitutional Court? I am in. I can go with my car on my own. But are you in? Everywhere... We would leave all this. But, please... This country is going through a great struggle, don't leave us lame and desperate. Don't leave us in hardships, please..."
'We have a good record in intervening'
Interior Minister Soylu also indicated that Turkey had "a good record when it came to intervening in social incidents."
According to him, 46 thousand 389 demonstrations and events were held in Turkey in 2018 and 771 of them were contrary to law. In 2019, 51 thousand 525 demonstrations and events were held and 846 were against the law. As of September 9, 2020, 21 thousand 841 demonstrations and events were held, 368 of them were contrary to law.
Soylu also stated that the number of unlawful demonstrations intervened by the security forces was 378 in 2018, which accounted for 0.8 percent. This number and rate were 339 and 0.7 percent respectively in 2019 and 213 and 1 percent respectively as of September 9 this year.
"Two conclusions can be drawn from this," Soylu said and added:
"First of all, in this country, there are no obstacles to holding meetings, demonstration marches and protests in a way that complies with the law and by getting the necessary permissions. Secondly, even in intervening in illegal demonstrations, this state has a language of common sense and a mindset oriented towards solving incidents without problems.
"Social incidents are, of course, tense incidents and it is a matter of seconds for a spark to turn into a fire that would disturb society. However, the numbers show that we are not unsuccessful in this area; we have a line and we are working to make this line higher and our friends more professional, we are working to increase our process management capacity in such a way to ensure that people's pursuit of justice is not provoked." (AS/SD)
