Turkey passes tough new security bill, raising fears of election crackdown
The Turkish Parliament on Friday overwhelmingly passed into law a security bill to broaden police powers and allow the use of firearms against demonstrators, deepening fears of crackdowns on dissent ahead of parliamentary elections.
According to the private Doğan news agency, the bill was approved with 199 votes for and 32 against after a 16 and a half hour parliamentary session. The 132-article security package passed into law with 69 articles, as the AK Party decided not to discuss 63 articles so as not to delay the approval of the bill any further.