Istanbul – Turkey’s state of emergency could be lifted before it expires on July 19, outgoing Prime Minister Binali Yildirim suggested on Thursday.
“I suppose the government will be announced on Monday, the cabinet will start work and emergency rule will have ended.
“We will probably issue our last decree tomorrow [Friday] and there will be arrangements to avoid weaknesses in the fight against terrorism once the emergency rule is lifted,” Yildirim told state news agency Anadolu in an interview.
The state of emergency was imposed after an attempted coup on July 15, 2016.
The current extension expires at 1 a.m. on July 19.
Yildirim also made a comparison with France’s state of emergency, imposed after the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks while it lapsed in November 2017, the French government wrote a number of emergency powers into ordinary law before it ended.
“They (France) reworked legal authorities into laws. We too will do this if there is a need,” Yildirim said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he would not extend emergency rule after presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24.
Erdogan won re-election and the expanded powers of an executive presidency, including enacting decrees.
The prime minister’s post is abolished in the new system.
Erdogan is to be sworn in on Monday, when he is also expected to announce his cabinet.
Turkey blames U.S.-based Islamic cleric and one-time Erdogan ally, Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the coup attempt.
Some 150,000 people have been purged from the civil service and military under emergency rule