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Murder of children renews debate over death penalty in Turkey

30 March 2011 [09:51] - TODAY.AZ
The murders of three children in Kayseri and the recent killing of a 9-year-old boy in Istanbul have rekindled debates over whether capital punishment should be reinstated in Turkey.

President Abdullah Gül said Tuesday that capital punishment was abolished in Turkey but noted that the country does have aggravated life imprisonment, which he said was similar to the death penalty.

Great Union Party, or BBP, leader Yalçın Topçu called Tuesday for the reinstatement of capital punishment for those involved in immoral and separatist terrorist activities, also launching a signature campaign in Ankara on the issue.

"We address Parliament: You abolished capital punishment. You created such a brutal atmosphere with your own hands. You couldn’t get out of the imagination tunnel called the European Union. You hold referendums at will. You should also ask the public for their opinion on this issue," Topçu said.

Parliament's Constitution Commission head Burhan Kuzu of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said he personally always defended the existence of such a punishment like the death penalty.

"If you ask my personal view on the issue, I always defended the existence of capital punishment. It remains [as an alternative] whether you apply it or not," Kuzu told reporters Tuesday.

The debate on the issue was fueled after the chief suspect in the missing children case in Kayseri, where three children disappeared while they were visiting their neighbors to collect candy in 2009, was arrested last week.

The fate of 9-year-old Fırat Sezer who was killed by his stepmother in Istanbul, likewise sparked a public outcry as the incident dominated local media headlines on Tuesday.

Joining the debate, Bilkent University Professor Ergun Özbudun said capital punishment was abolished in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe as well as in Turkey with a constitutional amendment in 2001. Turkey would move away from the European standards with its possible return, he said.

"If you ask about my opinion as an individual, not as a legal expert, I don’t find it unjust for the execution of those who violently committed murder. These people don’t have the right to live," Erbudun said, adding that reapplication of the punishment, however, was likely to create negative problems.

Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin said Tuesday people’s inner voices wished the offenders would not live but it would be difficult to reinstate the death penalty system.

Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputies Tuesday reacted to the debate on the reapplication of the punishment, with deputy leader Gürsel Tekin saying it would be a shame to discuss the death penalty.

CHP İzmir deputy Canan Arıtman said she was against every type of killing, including capital punishment, instead defending aggravated life imprisonment for rape crimes.

The CHP’s Mehmet Sevigen opposed the idea, arguing that a massacre can’t be concealed by another massacre, while Gültan Kışanak, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, condemned Kuzu’s remarks on the death penalty.


/Hurriyet Daily News/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/83365.html

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