Conclusion The freedom of peaceful assembly is a constricted right in Turkey, both in laws and in practice. The violations have been categorized under five headings:  The national laws regulating freedom of assembly in Turkey are incompatible with international standards. The Turkish Constitution recognizes the right to peaceful assembly, and only prescribes national security, public order, prevention of commission of crime, protection of public health and public morals as appropriate grounds of restricting this right. This article is consistent with European Convention article on the freedom of assembly. However, the law regulating the specifics of the right is overarching and surpasses the grounds prescribed by the Constitution and international standards. The law places general bans on assemblies in certain public spaces, such as parks, roads, and public office buildings. Even though the Constitution and international standards recognize this right as for everyone, the Law on Assemblies legislates that foreign country citizens have to get authorization from the Interior Ministry to organize meetings and demonstrations. The law also has a notification obligation for assemblies, which means that spontaneous assemblies are automatically considered as illegal. The regulations also give unlimited power to security forces in intervening with assemblies. Authorities can set up video recording equipment on the venue of the assembly and record the event. The law also gives the police the authority to end assemblies if the ‘aim and purpose’ of the assembly exceeds that stated in the notification, and if ‘order and peace’ are disrupted. The laws also regulate the content of the assemblies. “[Wearing] symbols of illegal organizations, or attires resembling uniforms with these symbols… carrying banners, posters, placards, pictures, signs, tools and equipment defined to be illegal by the laws, or chanting or broadcasting such messages with a sound device slogans of this nature” are illegal, according to the law. The vague wording of these laws allow for any content in opposition to the government or current policies grounds for interference by the law enforcement. These laws form the foundation on which actions of public authorities act. Therefore, they are the first obstacle in exercising the right to assemble. Although the discrepancies within Turkish law and with international obligations regarding the freedom of assembly is widely pointed out4, the Turkish government suggests that the right to peaceful assembly is protected by the Constitution, and the other laws on the issue are hierarchically below the Constitution, and therefore no improvements on compatibility are needed in this area.5  The discretionary powers of public authorities are too broad and overarching The assembly laws in Turkey are overly vague and the power to interpret them are given to public authorities instead of the judiciary, severely hampering the right to peaceful assembly. The governors are given the power to postpone, and to cancel assemblies, they select the few areas available for assemblies each year, and they can even order for investigations to be started against those who hold assemblies despite of these bans. Although peaceful assemblies do not require permissions, they do require notifications. Notifications are given 48 hours in advance, with photocopies of the IDs, home and work addresses of organizers, starting and ending times of the assembly, and the purpose of the assembly. This already burdensome notification requirement works as a permission requirement in reality, since the governors also have the authority to ban events based on vague criteria of threat. Thus, most assemblies are intervened for being ‘illegal’, or not allowed by the governor. This problem has reached such an extent that many 4 5 EU Turkey Progress Report 2013 (53-54), 2014 (53-54), 2015 (65) A/HRC/29/15/Add.1 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Turkey, 150.23 14