SABAH- Columnist Gungor Mengi comments on discussions over Turkey’s death penalty abolition. A summary of his column is as follows:
The Council of State has concluded its discussion about the death penalty, which is one of the obstacles to Turkey’s EU membership. Under the council’s unanimous decision, a constitutional amendment is not needed for Turkey to completely abolish the death penalty. The changes to be made to the law would be sufficient to strike the death penalty from our books. Will the decision of the Council of State break this deadlock? Nationalist Action Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli yesterday uttered some words that can be interpreted in two different ways. He said, “We respect the decision of the Council of State, as it is their judgment. But we are of the opinion that a constitutional change is needed.” The MHP is acting as the spokesman of a common concern, one which fears the possibility that one day an amnesty might be implemented. This fear cannot be ignored, but it cannot be said that those who think this way want Apo (PKK terrorist Abdullah Ocalan) to be hanged at the cost of damaging Turkey. An arrangement ensuring that crimes deserving the death penalty will never be included in any amnesty and that those who commit such crimes will be sentenced to a hard life sentence would satisfy the expectations of justice. This is because a hard life in prison, under which amnesty is impossible, is a punishment worse than death. The coalition leaders should solve this problem without turning it into an occasion for bickering. Damaging Turkey’s goal of EU membership for Apo’s sake would mean giving this accursed man a place that he does not deserve. It would mean ruining the life of our children to whom we owe welfare and freedom.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION