The definition of “Terrorism” in Article 1 of the Anti-Terror Law is as follows;

(1) Terrorism is any kind of act done by one or more persons belonging to an organization with the aim of changing the characteristics of the Republic as specified in the Constitution, its political, legal, social, secular and economic system, damaging the indivisible unity of the State with its territory and nation, endangering the existence of the Turkish State and Republic, weakening or destroying or seizing the authority of the State, eliminating fundamental rights and freedoms, or damaging the internal and external security of the State, public order or general health by means of pressure, force and violence, terror, intimidation, oppression or threat.

As it is understood from the definition, terrorism in Turkish Law is confined to the acts committed against Turkish Republic and the acts committed against a foreign state or an international organization are not considered within the definition of terrorism.

In the Law No.3713, Article 3 of establishes the terrorist offences and Article 4 set forth the offences committed for the purpose of terrorism. Terrorist offences specified in Article 3 of the Law are listed below;

• Disrupting the Unity and Integrity of the State (TCL – Art.302),
• Destruction of Military Facilities and Conspiracy which Benefits Enemy Military Movements (TCL – Art.307),
• Violation of the Constitution (TCL – Art.309),
• Offence against a Legislative Body (TCL- Art.311),
• Offences against the Government (TCL – Art 312),
• Armed Revolt against the Government of Turkish republic (TCL – Art.312),
• Armed Organization (TCL – Art.314),
• Supplying Arms (TCL – Art.315),
• Enlistment of Soldiers in Foreign Service (TCL – Art.320),
• Assassination of the President (TCL – Art.310/1).

The offences committed for the purpose of terrorism specified in Article 4 may be listed as follows;

“Migrant smuggling; human trafficking; intentional killing; directing suicide; intentional injury; aggravated injury on account of its consequences; torment; threat; blackmail; force; deprivation of liberty; prevention of education and training; prevention of the activities of a public institution or professional institution considered to be a public institution; prevention of the exercise of political rights; prevention of the exercise of freedom of belief, thought and conviction; violation of the immunity of residence; violation of the freedom to work and labour; preventing the exercise of trade unions rights; qualified theft; robbery; qualified robbery; damage to property; qualified damage to property; intentionally endangering public safety; disseminating radiation; causing an atomic explosion; possession or exchange of hazardous substances without permission; adding toxic substances; production and trade of narcotics and psychotropic substances; counterfeiting valuable stamps, instruments for the production of money and valuable stamps; counterfeiting a seal; counterfeiting official documents; documents presumed to be official documents; threat with the intention of causing fear and panic among the public; provocation to commit an offence; praising an offence and offender; hijacking or seizure of transport vehicles; occupation of a stationary platform on territorial land and industrial zone; accessing a data processing system; preventing the functioning of a system and deletion, alteration or corrupting of data; prevention of public duty; providing the opportunity to escape; degrading the symbols of state sovereignty; agreement to commit an offence; usurping military command; discouraging people from performing military service; encouraging soldiers to disobey; physical attack to the president; the offences specified in the Law No.6136 on Fire Arms and Knives (like smuggling fire arms); causing a fire in a forest stated in the Law No.6831 on Forests; the offences (like organized smuggling) requiring imprisonment specified in the Law No. 4926 on Prevention of Smuggling; the offences causing state of emergency (disruption of public order due to violence actions etc.); transmitting cultural and natural values abroad stated in the Law No.2863 on Protection of Cultural and Natural Values.

Terrorist financing offence which has been drawn up in the Law No. 5532 Regarding Amendment in the Anti-Terror Law came into force on 18.07.2006 and in Article 8 of Law No.3713 To Fight Against Terrorism is as follows:

“Whoever knowingly and willfully provides with or collects fund for committing partially or fully terrorist crimes, shall be punished as a member of an organization. Fund cited in the first paragraph of this Article shall mean money or all types of property, right, credit, revenue and interest, value of which may be presented by money, and benefit and value that was collected as a result of conversion thereof”

In the concerning article it is stated that the persons who committed terrorist financing offence shall be punished as a member of an organization and also in the article 7 of the same law it is stated that the members of the organization shall be punished according to the provisions of article 314 of Turkish Criminal Code. In article 314 of Turkish Criminal Code it has been stated that any person who becomes a member of an organization shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of five to ten years. Accordingly, the punishment of terrorist financing in Turkish law is imprisonment for a term of five years to ten years. On the other hand, in article 8/A of Law No.3713 it has been stated that if crimes included in this Law are committed through undue influence in the public service, punishment to be given shall be increased by one half. In article 8/B of the same Law it has been stated that if crimes included in this Law are committed in the context of a legal personality, security measures peculiar to those persons as per the Article 60 of the Turkish Penal Law shall be adjudged.

Law No.5237 Turkish Criminal Code

In the article 282 of Turkish Criminal Code entitled as “Laundering of Assets Acquired from an Offence” it is stated that “Whoever transfers abroad the proceeds derived from an offence requiring a minimum of one year or more imprisonment or subjects the proceeds to any transaction for the purposes of disguising illicit sources of them and misleading as if they were derived from legitimate sources, is sentenced to imprisonment from 2 years up to 5 years and to judicial fine up to twenty thousand days.”

Because the sanction of terrorist financing offence is determined as imprisonment for a term of five years to ten years, terrorist financing offence is considered to be the predicate offence of laundering and transferring the assets derived from terrorist financing offence abroad or concealing the illegitimate source of such and processing various operations giving the impression that such asset has been legitimately acquired is evaluated in the scope of “laundering” offence.

Law No.5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime

With the Law No.5549; legal arrangements have been made in order to ensure the prevention of laundering proceeds of crime and terrorist financing and the efficiency in combating mentioned offences, obligations have been determined in this scope and the duties and scope of powers of MASAK have been enhanced including combating terrorist financing in addition to combating laundering.

Besides the arrangements made for combating solely terrorist financing in the Law No.5549, the arrangements made relating to combating laundering also seem to be possible to be evaluated in the scope of terrorist financing as the terrorist financing offence is the predicate offence of laundering.

Provisions concerning suspicious transaction reporting have been established in the article 4 of Law No.5549 and it is stated that in case that there is any information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that the asset, which is subject to the transactions carried out or attempted to be carried out within or through the obliged parties, is acquired through illegal ways or used for illegal purposes, these transactions shall be reported to the Presidency by the obliged parties.

With the article 19/e and 19/ı of law No.5549 MASAK is given the duty and power to collect data, to receive suspicious transaction reports, to analyze and evaluate them in the scope of prevention of laundering proceeds of crime and terrorist financing and to convey the cases to the competent Public Prosecutor’s Office in cases where serious suspicion exists that a money laundering or terrorist financing offence is committed.

In the article 17 of law No.5549 entitled as “seizure” it has been stated that in cases where there is strong suspicion that the offences of money laundering and financing terror are committed, the asset values may be seized in accordance with the procedure in article 128 of Criminal Procedure Law No. 5271.

Regulation on Measures Regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism

The Regulation on Measures Regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism was published in the Official Gazette No.26751 on 09.01.2008. The enforcement date has been determined as 01.04.2008 in the article 51 of the mentioned Regulation.

Principles and procedures regarding obliged parties, obligations and inspection of compliance with obligations, disclosure to customs administration and other measures for the purpose of preventing laundering proceeds of crime and financing of terrorism have been regulated in the Regulation drawn up for the implementation of Law No. 5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime.

Suspicious transaction has been defined as the case where there is any information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that the asset which is subject to the transactions carried out or attempted to be carried out within or through the obliged parties has been acquired through illegal ways or used for illegal purposes and is used, in this scope, for terrorist activities or by terrorist organizations, terrorists or those who finance terrorism.

MASAK GENERAL COMMUNIQUE NO:2

Principals and procedures regarding suspicious transaction reporting and 19 types of suspicious transactions have been defined in MASAK General Communiqué No.2 which entered into force on 31.12.1997 through being published in the Official Gazette.

In accordance with the suspicious transaction type “Transferring large amounts of money from countries or to countries in which there are illegal activities regarding narcotic substances, smuggling or in which there are terrorist organizations and, transferring large amounts of money from or to offshore centers” a contribution to combating financing of terrorism has been made through including transactions carried out to and from countries and centers where terrorist organizations operate within the scope of transactions that shall be reported by obliged parties.

MASAK GENERAL COMMUNIQUE NO: 3

In MASAK General Communiqué No.3 that entered into force on 07.02.2002 through being published in the Official Gazette the following transaction type has been included as a 20th suspicious transaction type in addition to the 19 types given in MASAK General Communiqué No.2 in order to help obliged parties in suspicious transaction reporting obligation:

“Reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are linked or related to, or is to be used for terrorism or terrorist acts”

General Communiqué of Suspicious Transaction Reporting Regarding Terrorist Financing

In General Communiqué of Suspicious Transaction Reporting Regarding Terrorist Financing that entered into force on 07.11.2007 through being published in the Official Gazette there are explanations and clarifications for efficient, timely and proper fulfillment of suspicious transaction reporting obligation regarding terrorist financing.

In this General Communiqué it is stated that the definition of suspicious transaction given in Article 4 of Law No. 5549 covers “the use of the asset subject to transaction for illegal purposes” in addition to its acquirement through illegal ways and it has been set forth in this scope that cases where there is any information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds are used for terrorist activities or by terrorist organizations, terrorists or those who finance terrorism, or that the funds are related or linked to terrorist organizations, terrorists or those who finance terrorism shall be subject to suspicious transaction reporting.

Moreover, it is stated in the mentioned General Communiqué that the primary objective of terrorism is to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act by intimidating a people or arousing indignation in a people. In this framework, cases where there is information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect regarding not only financing of terrorist acts against Turkish Republic but also against other states and international organizations shall be reported to MASAK.