Turkey's two-year-long state of emergency, imposed after an attempted coup in July 2016, has ended but the government has already proposed a stringent anti-terrorism bill to replace it.
Emergency rule was imposed on July 20, 2016, following an attempted coup by a faction in the military. It has since been extended seven times, each for periods of three months.
The most recent extension expired on Thursday, when the government simply let it lapse.
Emergency rule brought with it a harsh crackdown on government critics and opposition media. More than 77,000 people were arrested over their alleged links to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the coup bid.
More than 110,000 civil servants were purged, while over 1,500 people, including soldiers and journalists, were sentenced to life in prison.
The June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections took place under the state of emergency. A constitutional referendum in April 2017 that passed with a razor-thin majority to change Turkey into an all-powerful executive presidency from a parliamentary model also took place under emergency rule.
Ahead of the elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that his first task if he won re-election would be to lift emergency rule.
But the anti-terrorism bill proposed this week by Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), seen by dpa, retains some aspects of emergency rule.
The bill will be discussed by a parliamentary commission on Thursday and introduced in parliament next week.
It is expected to pass without a hurdle, as the AKP and its far-right allies, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), secured a parliamentary majority in June.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has criticised the new terrorism bill as strengthening coup laws instead of getting rid of them.
"The coup process is still under way today. Now, they bring legislation to parliament, to make emergency rule permanent," CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told the party's parliamentary group on Tuesday.
Amnesty International said the end of emergency rule was a welcome step but "it needs to be accompanied by urgent measures if it is to be anything more than a cosmetic exercise."
