Politics
New judicial package to strengthen criminal justice: Minister
The newly passed 10th Judicial Reform Package aims to strengthen criminal justice, prevent crime and “eliminate the perception of impunity,” Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said Wednesday as Parliament approved the far-reaching legal changes a day before.
Tunç hailed the new reform as a crucial step toward a more effective and credible justice system. “With this package, we aim to make criminal justice more effective, eliminate the perception of impunity, expand the scope of special execution procedures, prevent the commission of crimes and ensure deterrence, as well as increase traffic safety,” Tunç said on social media after the vote.
He added: “I thank all our deputies who supported the legislative process. We will continue to implement the goals in our Judicial Reform Strategy Document prepared with the vision of a rule-of-law-based, swift, and predictable justice system, and we will make the ‘Century of Türkiye’ the century of justice.”
The newly enacted law introduces a wide array of amendments to multiple legal codes, including the Penal Code, Execution of Penalties Law, and laws governing notaries and administrative courts. Many of the provisions aim to address longstanding concerns over sentencing inconsistencies, outdated penal procedures, and lenient treatment of serious offenses.
One of the most important updates is the increase in prison sentences for attempted crimes, especially where the offender previously faced aggravated or life imprisonment. The new law raises the lower and upper limits of determinate prison terms. For instance, the sentence for crimes previously punished with aggravated life imprisonment will now range between 14 and 21 years, instead of the previous 13 to 20. For regular life sentences, the range is now 10 to 18 years, up from nine to 15.
Similarly, penalties for intentional injury have been toughened, with minimum prison terms rising from one year to one year and six months. In cases where injuries result in permanent harm – such as loss of organ function, facial disfigurement or premature birth in attacks against pregnant women –minimum penalties have been increased across the board, in some cases from five to six years or from eight to nine years. If an injury leads to death, the lower limit of the sentence will now be 10 years instead of 8. If bone fractures caused by assault lead to death, the lower limit is now 14 years. These stricter penalties also apply to crimes committed against women, where the minimum sentence has risen from six months to nine months.
The law also targets threats and intimidation more forcefully, with the aim of deterrence. For example, threatening someone with major financial harm or other serious consequences will now carry a minimum sentence of two months. If the threat involves a weapon, disguise, unsigned letters or symbols, is perpetrated by a group, or relies on the intimidation power of a crime syndicate, the maximum prison sentence has increased from five to seven years.
Traffic safety violations are another key area. Under the new law, anyone who operates a vehicle in a dangerous manner – whether by land, sea, air or rail – faces a minimum of four months in prison, up from three months. Drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or those otherwise unfit to drive safely, will now face a minimum sentence of six months.
The law introduces expanded options for sentence execution at home, particularly for vulnerable populations. Inmates who are elderly, ill or disabled and deemed unable to survive independently in prison conditions, and who do not pose a danger to public safety, will now be eligible to serve their sentences under house arrest. This includes those with aggravated illnesses, disabled individuals and convicts over 80. Their eligibility will be reassessed annually. Additionally, women who have given birth more than six months prior and received sentences of up to five years may also benefit from home confinement, provided certain conditions are met.
For other groups, such as children, individuals over 65 and the elderly in general, new regulations expand the scope of weekend or night-time incarceration, allowing them to serve short sentences without fully entering the prison system. For example, a convict may enter prison on Friday evening and leave Sunday night, or serve time overnight during the week. These decisions will take into account family and work obligations as well as the needs of the prison system.
The reform also introduces changes to parole eligibility. Inmates serving second-time repeat sentences – those who have reoffended after a previous conditional release – will now be eligible for parole after completing three-quarters of their sentence. Previously, these individuals had virtually no pathway to early release. For those with multiple determinate prison sentences, the total sentence that must be served for eligibility is capped at 32 years.
Another amendment relates to open prison inmates and juveniles nearing parole. Those with one year or less remaining in their sentence must now spend at least one-tenth of that period physically in prison to qualify for supervised release, setting a clearer structure for early reintegration.
Important revisions were also made in response to rulings by the Constitutional Court. In the Notary Law, the reform establishes a detailed framework for disciplinary procedures. Notaries can now face penalties ranging from warnings and fines to suspension and disbarment, depending on the severity of the misconduct. Repeat offenses committed within five years of a previous disciplinary decision will now result in a harsher penalty. The statute of limitations for initiating a disciplinary investigation is now set at three years from the time the offense becomes known, and no disciplinary punishment can be imposed if more than five years have passed since the act was committed.
In sum, the 10th Judicial Reform Package represents one of the most comprehensive overhauls to Türkiye’s penal and procedural codes in recent years. The law touches nearly every stage of the justice process – from how crimes are punished, to how sentences are served, to how state professionals like notaries are held accountable.
Tunç emphasized that the reform aligns with the country’s broader judicial vision under the “Century of Türkiye” framework. “We will continue implementing the goals outlined in our Judicial Reform Strategy Document, and we will make this century one of justice.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned that unlawful attacks on Iran have heightened regional security risks, calling for a new and stronger security architecture during talks with regional leaders at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
According to the Presidential Communications Directorate, Erdoğan made the remarks during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the forum.
He emphasized that Türkiye will continue and intensify efforts to preserve the cease-fire and ensure lasting peace, while stressing the need for a comprehensive and durable regional security framework.
The leaders also discussed possible joint steps to achieve sustainable peace across the region.
On the margins of the forum, Erdoğan held a series of bilateral meetings with regional counterparts, including Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
The meetings, held in Antalya’s Belek region, focused on bilateral ties and regional developments.
Senior Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalın and Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, attended the meetings.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for transforming a fragile cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran into lasting peace and warned of mounting regional risks, saying the Middle East is facing one of its most serious tests in recent history.
Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Fidan stressed the need to “put out the fire” in the region, expressing hope that the recently reached cease-fire would be fully implemented and evolve into a durable peace.
He referred to the 14-day cease-fire between the United States and Iran reached earlier this month and efforts led by Pakistan to revive stalled talks between Washington and Tehran.
Fidan warned that the world is entering an era defined by overlapping crises and uncertainty, where multiple threats reinforce one another.
He said the ongoing war and its regional spillover effects have caused serious damage to the international system, underlining that the latest escalation has once again demonstrated that war produces no winners.
Praising diplomatic efforts that helped secure the temporary cease-fire, particularly those led by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Fidan said the root causes of the conflict must not be ignored.
He described Israel’s expansionist policies as a direct threat to global stability, urging those seeking lasting peace to take action to halt further escalation.
Fidan noted that the international community has shown rare unity in efforts to de-escalate tensions, calling for this momentum to be used to strengthen dialogue and diplomacy.
He emphasized that diplomacy must remain central to resolving conflicts, describing it as the key tool to prevent further escalation, rebuild trust and preserve common ground for the future.
Fidan outlined two main pillars for shaping a more stable future. The first is reforming global governance to make international institutions more inclusive, transparent and accountable, warning that current structures are increasingly ineffective and risk deepening crises.
He also stressed the need for fairer distribution of global prosperity and cautioned against the misuse of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence as tools of dominance.
The second pillar, he said, involves taking strategic steps to ensure lasting regional peace and stability. He pointed to ongoing conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel’s expanding military actions from Gaza to Syria, Lebanon and Iran, and instability in the Horn of Africa and Sudan, as evidence of rising interconnected crises.
Fidan highlighted Türkiye’s role as a key diplomatic actor capable of engaging with all sides, emphasizing Ankara’s commitment to mediation and regional stability.
He added that a sustainable regional order requires respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, recognition of diversity as a source of strength, stronger regional security cooperation, an end to the use of non-state actors and progress toward a two-state solution in Palestine.
On the sidelines of the forum, Fidan also held separate meetings with Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The Antalya Diplomacy Forum, held under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, brings together world leaders and senior officials from April 17 to 19 in southern Türkiye, focusing this year on the theme “Mapping Tomorrow, Managing Uncertainties.”
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held its 152nd Assembly on Thursday in Istanbul, at a session chaired by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş.
The situation in Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians were slaughtered by Israel since 2023 was the main theme of Kurtulmuş’s keynote speech at the General Assembly. He said hosting parliamentarians in Istanbul to deepen multilateral ties was a reflection of demonstrating humanity’s common conscience.
Referring to the event’s theme of “nurturing hope, securing peace and ensuring justice for future generations,” Kurtulmuş said it was a comprehensive goal addressing to the needs of the age.
Kurtulmuş noted that humanity is going through an extraordinarily difficult, critical and challenging period in which escalating and expanding conflicts, deepening inequalities, displacement, waves of hunger and the erosion of trust are all intertwined. He explained that a multilateral and multipolar political architecture had long been one of the main pillars of international balance.
Stating that developments in recent years have eroded the capacity of institutions to generate will, the ability to enforce rules and the moral weight of concepts, Kurtulmuş said: “The situation we face is not one that stems merely from certain technical deficiencies or disruptions, nor can it be explained solely by such shortcomings. We are confronted with a deeper, more comprehensive, and universal problem. While the global system maintains its claim to solve problems, unfortunately it fails to demonstrate the courage to implement norms. In principle, the texts remain in place and are in force; however, in the face of the destruction suffered by millions, these principles no longer have any protective effect. Law has been transformed into an instrument of pressure that bends for the powerful while becoming rigid against the weak.”
Emphasizing that the international system is in clear collapse and that the grave situation in Gaza is just one of the clearest manifestations of this collapse, Kurtulmuş continued: “In a situation where civilians cannot be protected, the right to life cannot be guaranteed, health infrastructure has been destroyed, humanitarian aid passages are blocked, and basic living conditions have been eliminated, the failure to present an effective and binding will constitutes a serious responsibility and a serious test for all of us in terms of the international system. There is no need to mince words here. An international structure that remains silent in the face of systematic attacks against humanity is in fact losing its founding claims. Centers that claim to represent conscience are content with merely watching the suffering. The Palestinian issue has gone far beyond being the tragedy of a particular region and has become a shared test for all of humanity,” he underlined.
Kurtulmuş stated that Gaza serves as a clear laboratory demonstrating the destructive consequences of selectively applied humanitarian law. “Gaza is a grave test that questions why institutions were established, whom rules are meant to protect, and how consistently the human family can act in the face of shared values and we are all confronted with this test. Silence maintained at the cost of the lives of the oppressed can never be considered neutrality. I would like to state clearly that political bargaining can never be conducted over the right to life of civilians,” he said.
He emphasized that the parliaments had a major responsibility in the face of these developments.
“We must not lose the ability to call an oppressor an oppressor under the guise of politeness. There is a difference between speaking in a measured way and speaking ineffectively, just as there is a difference between calmness and silence. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that parliaments bear a great responsibility in this period. We will both speak clearly and never adopt an attitude that hides the truth under the name of courtesy,” he said.
Founded in 1889 by parliamentary representatives to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation and dialogue, the IPU now stands out as the umbrella organization of the world’s parliaments, with 183 member countries.
Türkiye, which hosted General Assembly meetings in 1934 and 1951 and most recently 30 years ago, is set to once again demonstrate its experience and expertise in parliamentary diplomacy, as well as the importance it places on multilateral relations and international dialogue.
A highlight of the opening ceremony for the General Assembly was the arrival of the Iranian delegation with a bloodied school bag belonging to a student killed in a U.S.-Israel attack in the conflict that began on Feb. 28.
At the session of the peace and international security committee of the general assembly, lawmakers debated a resolution for the creation of post-conflict administrative mechanisms and works on ensuring fair and permanent peace by parliaments. Awni Al-Zoubi, a member of Jordan’s Parliament, told the session that a draft resolution he and fellow parliamentarians presented on the matter had references to the United Nations, noting that the parliaments had an important duty to convert political commitments to mechanisms and create follow-up, monitoring mechanisms. He said national agencies should lead post-conflict recoveries while other countries should provide support to the said agencies and ensure democratic legitimacy.
Benjamin Okezie Kalu, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, told the session that a cease-fire is often confused with the “end of a war,” but post-conflict cease-fire agreements tend to be fragile and need structured efforts and frameworks.
“Without this framework, the countries are at risk of succumbing to the cycle of violence,” Kalu warned. He said parliaments can help turn fragile agreements into binding regulations.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the international system is facing a deep legitimacy crisis, warning that diplomacy has been replaced by weapons, as he called for renewed efforts toward dialogue, justice and peace.
Addressing the 152nd General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Erdoğan expressed hope that discussions and decisions made during the gathering would strengthen solidarity among nations and contribute to resolving ongoing crises, particularly the Israeli violence in Gaza.
He emphasized that the global system established after World War II is losing credibility, with its core values, rules and institutions increasingly undermined.
“The international system established by the victors 80 years ago is now facing a deep crisis of legitimacy,” he said.
Erdoğan noted that international law has lost its deterrent effect on actors committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, adding that a growing reliance on military force instead of diplomacy has created an environment where no one feels secure.
He reaffirmed that Türkiye’s foreign policy prioritizes resolving conflicts through peaceful means, stressing that sustainable peace cannot be achieved without the active involvement of regional actors.
Erdoğan highlighted Türkiye’s diplomatic efforts in regions including Gaza, Ukraine, Iran and Africa, describing them as grounded in principled and realistic approaches.
He also underlined the critical role of parliaments in representing the will of nations and contributing to global peace efforts, while criticizing the international community’s slow response to crises in the Middle East.
Erdoğan pointed to recent developments, noting that while global attention has shifted to tensions involving Iran, thousands of people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Palestine and Lebanon, with more than one million displaced in Lebanon.
Turkish authorities detained 12 suspects in a coordinated operation across nine provinces targeting a cybercrime network accused of infiltrating public institutions’ digital systems and exploiting citizens’ personal data, officials said.
The operation, led by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), was carried out in cooperation with the Cyber Security Directorate, the Gendarmerie General Command and the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), following a joint investigation into the group’s activities.
Raids were conducted early in the morning in Istanbul, Konya, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Manisa, Mardin, Batman, Çanakkale and Hakkari, centered on the capital Ankara, where prosecutors are overseeing the case. Authorities said the suspects were apprehended in simultaneous operations targeting what they described as an organized cybercrime structure.
According to security sources, the network had been under surveillance by MIT as part of an intelligence-led probe into attempts to gain unauthorized access to government information systems.
Investigators found that the group used malicious software to target login credentials of public sector employees, enabling them to infiltrate systems and carry out transactions through compromised accounts.
The stolen data was allegedly distributed through a multilayered network and sold for profit under a “franchise-like” model to third parties. Officials said the information was marketed to various criminal actors, including fraud networks and, in some cases, groups linked to terrorism-related activities.
During the operation, authorities seized numerous domestic and foreign-based servers, data storage systems and digital materials believed to be connected to the network. Forensic examinations by the Cyber Security Directorate revealed that the suspects actively operated systems allowing unauthorized queries of personal data.
Investigators also identified multiple cryptocurrency wallets and digital financial assets linked to the group, which are now under examination as part of the financial dimension of the probe.
One key suspect, accused of building and managing the network’s technical infrastructure and operating under a code name to conceal his identity, was detained in the southeastern province of Mardin. Authorities allege he played a central role in expanding the network by facilitating data-sharing with various criminal entities.
Officials said the investigation remains ongoing and could expand as new evidence emerges, emphasizing that efforts to dismantle cybercrime networks will continue.
In 2025, MIT intensified efforts against cybercrime and illegal access to personal data. In coordination with the Gendarmerie General Command, the National Cyber Incident Response Center (USOM) and the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), multiple operations were carried out across several provinces.
Throughout the year, more than 1,200 fraudulent websites linked to cyber fraud schemes were shut down.
Qatar’s Shura Council Speaker Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanim on Thursday highlighted the growing diplomatic influence of Türkiye and Qatar, saying the two countries play a key role in mediating regional conflicts and supporting humanitarian efforts, particularly in Gaza.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 152nd General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Istanbul, al-Ghanim described the forum as a high-profile platform for international cooperation. He emphasized that Ankara and Doha maintain “deep-rooted and strategic” ties, marked by close coordination on political and humanitarian issues.
“Türkiye and Qatar play a very important role in resolving disputes and conflicts,” al-Ghanim said, noting their joint mediation efforts in regional crises and their ability to maintain dialogue between opposing sides.
He also underscored Qatar’s ongoing support for Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, where humanitarian conditions have sharply deteriorated amid the continuing conflict. Doha has been a central mediator in cease-fire negotiations and hostage exchanges, working alongside partners including Egypt and the United States, according to reports from international agencies.
Türkiye, for its part, has been one of the most vocal advocates for a cease-fire and increased humanitarian access. Ankara has delivered aid shipments, hosted diplomatic talks and pushed for international recognition of Palestinian statehood. The Turkish Parliament also launched initiatives such as a parliamentary group focused on Palestine and Jerusalem.
Al-Ghanim said the Qatari Shura Council is coordinating closely with Turkish lawmakers to align parliamentary efforts aimed at easing Palestinian suffering and mobilizing global support.
Beyond Gaza, Türkiye and Qatar have expanded cooperation across defense, trade and diplomacy over the past decade. The two countries have also worked in tandem on regional issues, including conflicts involving Iran and broader Middle East security challenges, often positioning themselves as key intermediaries.
Their partnership, al-Ghanim said, continues to contribute to stability through dialogue and coordinated action.
‘Türkiye is the Key to Peace’ post from the Directorate of Communications: “A strong stance is taken under the leadership of President Erdoğan”
Erdoğan urges new regional security framework amid rising tensions
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‘Türkiye is the Key to Peace’ post from the Directorate of Communications: “A strong stance is taken under the leadership of President Erdoğan”
Erdoğan urges new regional security framework amid rising tensions
“Türkiye is the Key to Peace” sharing from cabinet members! They emphasized President Erdoğan’s leadership
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