TÜSİAD warns against trustee appointments: 'Risk of creating an insecure environment'

Following the Esenyurt Municipality in Istanbul, trustees have been appointed to the Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, Batman Municipality, and the Halfeti Municipality in Şanlıurfa.

Following these decisions, the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) issued a written statement.

The statement expressed that in order to overcome social and economic problems, regulations and practices that restrict freedoms must be avoided.

The written statement issued by TÜSİAD included the following remarks:

"We must avoid regulations and practices that restrict freedoms in order to overcome the significant social and economic problems ahead. Our country's influence in the world in the fields of politics and economy will be determined by the strength of its democracy and the rule of law. Laws are binding on all citizens and institutions. However, every political development or legislative change that comes to the agenda creates a significant impact on perceptions and expectations.

For this reason, every step we take must serve the expectations of improving democracy and the environment of trust. The practice of appointing trustees to local governments ultimately results in depriving the citizens living in those cities and districts of an elected local government.

In the context of trustee appointments, it is not the local official who is removed from office who is punished, but the public who elected them.

The person to replace the removed local official should be determined through democratic means, and the criminal investigation into the removed local official should be able to continue on its own course simultaneously.

"THERE IS A RISK OF CREATING AN INSECURE ENVIRONMENT"

Furthermore, the uncertainties contained in the Turkish Penal Code amendment, which has come to the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in recent weeks and is known to the public as "agent of influence," could lead to contradictory and debatable practices and could impose a disproportionate limit on rights and freedoms.

In its current form, the new definition of crime, which contains numerous uncertainties regarding which actions of NGOs, the press, researchers, and academics might constitute a crime, carries the risk of creating an insecure and unpredictable environment for everyone.

To overcome the significant social and economic problems ahead, we must avoid regulations and practices that restrict freedoms and ensure legal security and predictability."