According to the report, legislation regarding organizations and associations, including the laws on political parties, professional unions, foundations and associations, was initially based on the post-1980 coup mentality, which saw any organization made up of individuals working for a common goal as a potential “threat” to the country. Although Turkey’s Law on Associations was subject to a comprehensive overhaul in 2004 as part of Turkey’s EU harmonization project, it is still short of ensuring the right to form organizations and associations. The report made it clear that the researchers focused on the negative aspects of the new law.
Some of the changes made with the adoption on Dec. 4, 2004 of Law No. 5253 on Associations, which replaced the former Law No. 2908, include the removal of certain restrictions -- such as a criminal record -- on the qualities necessary to form an association, allowing minors to form associations or become members of associations, reducing the red-tape in setting up a new organization, allowing federations and confederations the right to open representative branches, some new procedures easing restrictions on how associations declare their income, introducing the right to hire people as employees of associations, introducing a provision that no association can be searched without a search warrant obtained from a judge, removing certain restrictions on acquisitions that can be made by associations, introducing the necessity of informing an association at least 24 hours in advance of an inspection by the Interior Ministry, allowing organizations to set up temporary platforms for cooperation, removing restrictions on receiving aid in cash or in kind from individuals or organizations abroad and removing restrictions on granting the status of an organization working for the public good to such organizations, provisions that previously allowed governor’s offices to halt the activities of an association without the necessary court orders.
The report praised these improvements, but said traces of the older mentality that saw civil society organizations and associations as a potential threat continued to be felt in the sphere of organizations. The report said the establishment has failed to understand that civil society has an autonomous structure completely independent of the public sector. The report said although the new laws made it clear that associations should exercise self-inspection mechanisms, the over-regulating and over-supervising attitude of the state still remains in place. It said this meant that essentially, the root of the problem remained embedded in the legislation, albeit in a much alleviated form: “Unfortunately the custom of taking back rights given by laws via ‘soft’ legal instruments such as regulations or decrees and/or the curbing of rights through such means is a continuing trend.” The report also said the application of the law changed considerably from field to field, saying human rights groups particularly complained about differences and the arbitrariness in the enforcement of the law.
The report also noted that Turkey’s counterterrorism laws were still a major obstruction in the way of the freedom to organize and form associations, as noted by the European Court of Human Rights in various verdicts. The report, in line with the European court’s rulings, said bureaucrats and security officers often abused the tremendous powers vested in their hands by the current Counterterrorism Law. It said some very general and ambiguous descriptions of terrorism in the law created major problems regarding freedom of expression.
