People's Party (HP) spokesman Aral Moral has said national security is among his party's priorities, pledging to accelerate work in this area should the party take office.
In a written statement, Moral said citizens in the areas the party had visited had voiced concerns about public order and safety. He stressed that security problems could not be reduced to entries into and exits from the country alone, adding that money laundering and the informal economy must also be tackled.
Recalling that the last population census was held on 4 December 2011, Moral said a system to keep population data up to date should be established ahead of any new census. Noting that a census only reflects the population on the day it is conducted, he warned that data would quickly become outdated unless births, deaths and border movements were recorded regularly. He proposed a system in which government departments are connected online and can access relevant data instantly.
Moral said that once population data has been obtained, the Police Organisation Law should be revised accordingly. "Our police cannot be governed by a law dating back to 1984," he said. Praising the police for working with dedication and achieving successful results despite staff shortages, he recalled that the Police General Directorate had also recently called for the law to be updated.
Moral added that the party would work closely with the Republic of Turkey on data sharing, a process it had launched during its previous term in government but which was left unfinished. Pointing to the importance of data sharing among European Union countries for ID-based travel, he said data exchange with Turkey was necessary to view the identity and criminal record information of people entering and leaving the country.
