MILLIYET- Columnist Fikret Bila writes on a leaders’ summit to be held this week. A summary of his column is as follows:
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is planning to hold a summit this week to be attended by all leaders of the coalition parties. The major issue to be discussed at the summit is expected to be abolition of the death penalty.
A decision was made at the last leaders’ summit that a study on certain sensitive issues such as the abolishing the death penalty and broadcasting in Kurdish language should be carried out under the coordination of Foreign Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal and Secretary-General for EU Affairs Volkan Vural. The results of the study will be discussed at this week’s summit.
Can the death penalty be abolished in this country?
Ecevit is well known for his belief in the necessity of abolishing it. He has always stressed that Turkey would miss great opportunities in its relations with the EU if it failed to take the necessary steps to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria. Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz also supports getting rid of the penalty. They both believe that executing PKK terrorist head Abdullah Ocalan would be neither beneficial nor helpful to Turkey.
However, another coalition partner, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) believes that the death penalty must be abolished after Ocalan’s execution. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli argues that all articles covering capital punishment in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) might be abolished except for the Article 125, under which Ocalan was sentenced to the death penalty.
It won’t be easy for the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP) to convince the MHP on this issue. They are expected to try to persuade Bahceli to an alternative solution: Ocalan’s death penalty might be replaced by life in prison under strict conditions. However, the MHP doesn’t seem to be easily persuaded.
That’s why nobody should expect an immediate solution to this political hot potato.