A deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has proposed a draft bill to strip Turkish citizenship from people convicted of terrorism and allow for confiscation of their assets. Metin Külünk, an Istanbul deputy, called for amendments to an existing anti-terrorism bill, and said assets confiscated from terrorists should be used to fund Turkey's counterterrorism efforts.
The bill comes up for debate the PKK terrorist organization is holding an escalated campaign of terrorism in southeast Turkey, the DAESH terrorist organization has issued threats and carried out bombings, and the disclosure of a plot to carry out bombings by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
"Turkey was one of the countries hit worst by terrorism in the past three decades," Külünk said, referring to the brutal campaign of the PKK, which started carrying out terror attacks in the 1980s. "No matter what the source of terrorism is, it is an act aiming to claim people's lives, to wipe out basic rights and freedoms. So the PKK or DAESH are not distinct. We need a stronger struggle," he said.
"People convicted of terrorism should not have the luxury of enjoying citizenship of Turkey. You can't be an equal citizen with those you want to kill, in a country where you are bent to destroy laws. It is unacceptable," Külünk said.
Turkey has struggled with terrorism since the rise of the PKK. The terrorist organization's campaign has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the last three decades, and after a lull in its activities thanks to a government-sponsored "reconciliation process," the PKK resumed terrorism last summer. A new terror threat for Turkey emerged from Syria and Iraq when DAESH, which controls a vast stretch of land in Turkey's two southern neighbors, declared war. It is blamed for a string of deadly attacks in 2015 in Ankara and Şanlıurfa, as well as January's suicide bombing in Istanbul, with a tragic total of more than 150 people deaths.
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