ANKARA (AA) - Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said on Tuesday that it was not possible for Turkey to welcome a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision asking for a re-trial of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization PKK.
Addressing his party's group meeting, Baykal said that the European Convention on Human Rights didn't foresee the automatic implementation of the ECHR rulings, calling the government to give up its submissive attitude against Europe and try to prevent the imposition of a retrial on Turkey.
Baykal said that there was news telling that ECHR would probably ask for a retrial in Ocalan, adding it was not possible for Turkey to consider such a verdict as normal.
Baykal said that the European Convention on Human Rights foresaw that the evaluation of ECHR's decisions could be made at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (COE) or COE Delegates Committee. ''The legal aspect of the case will be finished with ECHR ruling, but the political stage will start then,'' said Baykal, urging the government to open the door of political evaluation of ECHR rulings, which was a right given to states by the European Convention on Human Rights.
Baykal warned that in case of a retrial, the trial would turn into a propaganda platform, foreigners will rush to Turkey to monitor the trial and there will be amnesty campaigns in Turkey, adding that this would hurt Turkish people who suffered a lot from terrorism.
2005-05-10