sPAT June 2017 Agenda: ‘Living in State of Emergency’

The small Provincial Assemblies of Turkey come together in June with the general agenda, “Living in State of Emergency.”

The small Provincial Assemblies of Turkey come together in June with the general agenda, “Living in State of Emergency.”

Approximately a year has passed, since the declaration of the State of Emergency on 22 July 2016. 

During the State of Emergency period, the applications of this process – Emergency Decrees, dismissals, custodies, detainments and arrests – have always been heavily debated in Turkey. The questions of whether these steps, claimed to be taken to fight against the PKK-ISIS-FETÖ/PYD terrorist organizations as well as to take control of the extraordinary situation emerged following the coup attempt on 15 July 2016; are providing security or freedom has been an important topic of debate.

The sPAT has previously debated the subtopics of the State of Emergency in October 2016, with the agenda “Statutory Decrees and Their Consequences” as well as in November 2016, with the agenda “Freedom of Expression in State of Emergency and The State of Media.”

In the sPA meetings of June 2017, we gather with the general agenda, “Living in State of Emergency” to handle topics still on debate for the past year, such as the steps taken by the government in security policies to fight against these terrorist organizations, the effects of these steps in the economical and social life as well as on the differences between the individual and the society, and lastly on freedom.

The time and location of the meetings are as indicated below:

*****Please contact our provincial porter for up-to-date information. You may find their contact information on our event calendar page.

Information on the meetings:

In case there is more than one person representing the same organization, only one of those representatives can take the floor at once. The time periods indicated below may be increased or decreased as long as all participants agree on the change and the flow of the meeting is not disrupted.

In our meetings, special guests speak about the general agenda for 10 minutes following the introduction video presented at the beginning of each meeting. After the special guests, the turn of speech is given first to Non-Governmental Organizations for 5 minutes each, then to Political representatives for 5 minutes each. Once the first round is completed, either the second round, or a question-answer session beings; according to the number of attendance and to the common preferences of the participants. In the Q/A session, political party representatives have 2 minutes to answer the questions asked by the civil society in 15 seconds. In this session, the special guests may be asked questions as well. The same format is applied for the local agenda as well, and the meeting concludes.