Council of Europe Convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and on the financing of terrorism and Turkish law

Neither money laundering nor financing of terrorism is a recently discovered phenomenon. However, especially in the period following September 11 attacks, the focus has been on the financing of terrorism on the international arena and it has started to be associated with money laundering due to the close relation between the two. For this reason, the efforts have been diverted towards ensuring that anti-money laundering regulations are also applicable to combating financing of terrorism. Prepared by the Council of Europe for this purpose, the ?Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism?, which constitutes the topic of this study, has the aim of harmonizing different pieces of legislation at a global level. The reason why we have decided to have the ?Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism? as the topic of this thesis is the fact that our country has signed the convention but hasn?t approved yet. Moreover, there is a draft law on prevention of financing of terrorism which still remains to be finalized and which is based upon the ?UN Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism? signed and approved by Turkey. However, when the ?Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism? will be approved by our country, Turkey will have to take into account its responsibilities arising from international law, due to approving this convention, with regards to the regulations in place and to be prepared in the future. Therefore, there is a clear need for analysing the main provisions of the Convention and for having a clear picture of the current status in Turkish law. We also felt the need to provide brief information on main international documents and instruments on combating laundering of proceeds from crime and financing of terrorism. In conclusion, we stated the results we reached after comparing relevant provisions of the ?Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism? in relation to the measures to be taken on national level and the current status of our national law as well as our general opinion on national regulations.Key Words1. Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism2. Law on Fight against Terrorism3. Financing of terrorism4. Money laundering5. Freezing of assets