An opinion piece by Soner Cagaptay published on warontherocks.com on 8 January 2018 includes a factual mistake. The article mentioned that the current state of emergency in Turkey gives police the right to detain anyone without a court order.

By its nature, detention is carried out without a court order and gives police the right to put the suspect in custody for a limited period with the purpose of interrogation of the suspect and collection of evidence before referring the suspect to the court. As above mentioned, this authority of the police is confined to a limited period and the current situation in Turkey under the state of emergency is not different.

Pursuant to Article 6 of the Law No. 6749 and Articles 10 and 11 of the Legislative Decree No. 684, the detention period in Turkey is limited to 7 (seven) days in the Republic of Turkey. After this period, the police has to refer the suspect to the court which will decide the suspect’s arrest or release. The prosecutor may extend the detention period for an additional 7 (seven) days only for one time and this power can be used in limited circumstances. The detention period is 30 (thirty) days in case of organized crimes and the crimes falling under the scope of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713. There is no extension option in this case.