Death Penalty Discussed

MILLIYET- Columnist Fikret Bila writes on the recent discussions over the abolition of the death penalty. A summary of his column is as follows:
In its meeting yesterday, the National Security Council (MGK) discussed the abolition of capital punishment and the Ocalan issue. No final decision was taken on the subjects. The civilan and military members of the Council have repeated their well-known views regarding the issue and it has been opened for discussion. Reportedly, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz voiced his opinion that the death penalty should be abolished and that Turkey had nothing to fear from this at the MGK meeting. Yilmaz noted that Turkey was obliged to abolish this punishment during its EU accession period and tried hard to persuade the members of the MGK. Yilmaz recalled concerns regarding the ban on native language expression and pointed out that no unpleasant incidents had occurred with the lifting of this ban. In response to Yilmaz' views, Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli repeated his arguments against death penalty abolition, saying that it was impossible for the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) to support such an initiative. The military stated that the politicians and judiciary must decide on the issue and that their own opinion should not be asked regarding the subject. Education and broadcasting in Kurdish were also taken up during the MGK meeting yesterday. It is known that Prime Minister Ecevit, while opposing education in Kurdish, is in favor of allowing broadcasts in that language. Yilmaz expressed views similar to that of the prime minister, while Bahceli reiterated the concerns he had openly voiced before. In consequence we can say that it is not realistic to expect Turkey, which has confronted problems such as the PKK and Ocalan, to act quickly on the subject. The issue has been opened to discussion in view of the possible developments and Turkey's future in detail. It is clear that the abolishing the death penalty is not confined to changing a legal rule regarding the lives of one or two people. The issue is directly concerned with Turkey's national security. Therefore, it must be discussed and decided upon by taking Turkey's future into consideration within the rubric national security. With this awareness, political parties must agree on an meta-parties approach and must not exploit the issue for political purposes.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION