Turkey could move soon to reinstate the death penalty, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said while attending the funeral of a young mother and her infant son who were killed by a roadside bomb.
Turkish authorities have blamed Tuesday’s attack near the borders of Iran and Iraq on Kurdish rebels.
They said the mother and child were targeted with an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Yuksekova.
The 24-year-old woman was driving back from visiting her husband, a sergeant in the Turkish army, with her 11-month-old son.
She died instantly, while the baby died in hospital.
Mr Erdogan, who flew to the central Turkish city of Sivas to attend the funeral, vowed to press ahead with the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) “until the last terrorist remains”.
Responding to mourners’ shouts calling for the death penalty, Mr Erdogan reiterated that he would not hesitate to approve capital punishment if Turkey’s parliament passed a law authorising it.
“The steps that we will take on the issue are close,” the president said.
Turkey has not executed anyone since 1984.
The country abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union.
The rebels of the PKK have waged a three-decade old insurgency in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish south-east region.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.
The group is considered a terror organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.
Source: irishexaminer.com, August 1, 2018
Erdogan on death penalty: killers must pay price for committing atrocities
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that capital punishment could be restored in the country if a corresponding law is adopted by the Turkish parliament.
"You know that we are very sensitive on this issue. If the law passes parliament, then I will ratify it, because we know the position of the killers. We know that they must pay the price for committing atrocities," Erdogan told NTV broadcaster.
Last year, a debate in Turkey on the reintroduction of the death penalty for crimes of terrorism or high treason triggered a firm rebuke from European institutions.
Discussions on the issue were prompted by an attempted military coup in 2016, which led to harsh security policies, including mass detentions of the alleged conspirators, Sputnik recalls.
Capital punishment was abolished in Turkey in 2002, but Ankara has already stated that it could be re-introduced despite protests from the European countries.
Source:
vestnikkavkaza.net, August 2, 2018
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
