Remove the National Security Document!
Lawyer Fethiye Cetin, who also commented on media reports claiming the MGSB would be amended, said the document is under the responsibility of the government and added that such a document should be removed from the Turkish political life.
Zafer Uskul agreed that national security policy should be under the responsibility of the government. "If MGSB is going to be recreated, it is normal that this is done through the initiative of the government," said Uskul.
The professor said that it is natural and necessary to touch on external threats toward the country and take measures against such threats. "Internal threats may also be at issue," he added.
According to Uskul, the main issue that needs to be questioned is, whether or not there is violence against the regime. "Not every criticism toward the regime is a threat," said Uskul.
"As the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also stated, no matter how 'shocking' these criticisms are, they cannot be viewed as threats as long as they don't involve violence."
"The government should make a correct assessment of this and there should be no secrecy in its assessment," Uskul told bianet.
"When a country's interests are at issue, it is hard to say 'there should be no secrecy at all.' The state may keep some secrets but the public should know about internal assessments. There has to be transparency in matter."
Uskul said that it is natural for government institutions to assess policies and strategies and added it would not be realistic to expect the prime minister to write such a document. He said the National Security Council (MGK) is one of those institutions.
Cetin: "The amendments should be clear and publicly available"
Lawyer Fethiye Cetin said despite all the steps taken toward full European Union membership, the state still has secret documents and regulations that are not transparent. The MGSK is one of those documents, according to Cetin.
"With the amendments to the National Security General Secretaryship law, it was said that the state would become civilian and the secret regulations would be abolished. But none of those promises were kept."
"The regulations and the MGSB are not available to the public. This is unacceptable in a democratic country," said Cetin adding that transparency is a legal rule.
"The operations of law enforcement should be clear. If not, as a citizen, I can't know my rights and defend them. If there is no confidence in the law, you cannot speak of a democracy in that country."
Cetin said that "internal threat" is not a legal term and added it is a direct outcome of the state seeing its citizens as threat, not loving or trusting them, and developing policies against them.
"National security documents and boards should be under the prime ministry," said Cetin. "The September 12 period legitimized such boards, and such secrecy. Such a document should be removed from Turkey's political history. The presence of such a document is unacceptable. The MGK should just be an advisory board." (NS/EU/EA/YE)