Accommodating Security Imperatives v. Protecting Fundamental Rights: The Challenge of States of Emergency in the Context of Countering Terrorism in Turkey

Abstract

This paper seeks to illuminate the use of exceptional national security and emergency powers in the fight against terrorism in Turkey. The paper is organized in four parts. Section I looks at the role of terrorism in the activation and justification of a state of emergency and introduces the Turkish case within this context. Section II explores the historical origins of the Turkish state of emergency regime and analyses the principles regulating emergency regime at the Turkish domestic level. Section III examines the operation of governmental emergency powers by providing an analysis of the state of emergency practices in Turkey, both past and present. A principal focus is necessarily directed at the state of emergency and the measures deployed within this framework in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, where emergency rule was in force from 1987 until 2002, and the recent nationwide state of emergency in the wake of the 15 July attempted coup. Section IV presents concluding remarks.

Keywords: Turkey, Emergency, Terrorism, ECHR, National Security, Derogation