Turkey plans to make praise of violent acts a 'terror crime': ruling party official

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during the opening ceremony of Vakif Participation Bank in Istanbul, Turkey February 26, 2016.

Reuters/Murad Sezer


ANKARA Turkey is working on widening the definition of a "terror crime" to include those who use the media to support or praise acts of violence, a senior official from the ruling party told Reuters on Wednesday, days after a suicide bombing killed 37 people.


President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, already seen by rights groups as too invasive and used in recent months to detain academics and journalists, should be widened further.


Police detained 20 suspects, including lawyers, across Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Wednesday in an operation targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), accused of carrying out Sunday's bombing in Ankara, state-run Anadolu Agency said.


A court meanwhile sent three academics to jail on Tuesday pending trial on charges of "terrorist propaganda" after they publicly read a declaration reiterating a call to end military operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast.


"A man may not have participated directly in terrorist acts but may have supported them ideologically. This may not be a full terror crime, but a degree of terror crime," a legal expert in the ruling AK Party familiar with the plans said.


"It is planned to broaden the extent of the law," he told Reuters, adding the justice ministry had already been planning the steps before the bombing in Ankara.


Western countries see a stable Turkey as essential to attempts to contain warfare in neighboring Syria and Iraq, but at the same time have criticized the NATO member and EU aspirant's human rights record. Critics have expressed particular concern for the independence of its judiciary.


TANKS, HELICOPTERS IN SOUTHEAST


Over 40,000 people have been killed in an insurgency by Kurdish militants that Ankara fears could lead to establishment of a separate Kurdish state encompassing Turkish territory. A ceasefire broke down in July, unleashing some of the worst violence in the history of the conflict.


No group has claimed the car bombing that tore through a transport hub in the capital city on Sunday, the third suicide attack in Ankara in five months, but the interior ministry said it was carried out by a female member of the PKK.


Erdogan has repeatedly cautioned journalists, academics and lawmakers they should not think themselves immune from prosecution under anti-terrorism laws.


He has called for the immunity of deputies from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP, parliament's third-largest party, to be lifted, arguing that it is an extension of the PKK. The HDP denies the accusation.


"It might be the terrorist who pulls the trigger and detonates the bomb, but it is these supporters and accomplices who allow that attack to achieve its goal," he said on Monday.


The detentions in Istanbul came as fighting between security forces and the PKK spread to new areas in southeast Turkey, with tanks, helicopters and armored cars deployed.


Anadolu said the police raids, backed by helicopter, were carried out simultaneously at 32 spots across the city and those detained included lawyers of an unspecified association.


The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.


(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Ralph Boulton)