MHP deputies Mehmet Serdaroğlu and Behiç Çelik, who drafted the bill, have suggested that increased acts of terrorism have created a need for the death penalty, which was abolished on Aug. 2, 2002.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Çelik said his party is against the death penalty but that the punishment was abolished at a time when incidents of terror had significantly decreased.

“We need to have the death penalty in the case of terrorism, war and widespread violence because the death penalty has a deterrent effect. The states of the European Union have abolished the death penalty because they do not face acts of terror like Turkey does,” he said. Çelik added that the Turkish public has difficulty accepting the fact that the man responsible behind a terrorist act in Dağlıca remains punished only by a life sentence, in clear reference to Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Eight soldiers were captured in Dağlıca in southeastern Turkey on Oct. 23 of last year during an attack by the PKK in which 12 other soldiers were killed. Öcalan, apprehended in 1999 when the MHP was in Parliament as part of a coalition government, was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole when the death penalty was abolished in peacetime as part of a raft of reforms aimed at preparing the country for European Union membership.

He was originally sentenced to death in June 1999 for his role in years of separatist war against the Turkish authorities, in which more than 30,000 people were killed.

In 2002 Parliament voted through a package of reforms that included easing restrictions on the Kurdish rights and language. The package was rushed through parliament by pro-EU forces who wanted the legislation in place before elections, which were held early, after the ruling three-party coalition government -- the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Motherland Party (ANAP, now ANAVATAN) and the MHP -- suffered a number of high-profile resignations. Only the MHP voted against the reforms, fearing the Kurdish rights clauses would mean giving in to the demands of Kurdish separatists.

At the time 419 deputies participated in the voting to abolish the death penalty; 162 opposed and 256 supported. A squabble started when leaders of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the MHP, addressing separate election rallies, exchanged remarks over who was responsible for not executing the death penalty sentence on Öcalan. In response to criticism leveled in a speech from Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdoğan, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli challenged him by saying, “Can’t you afford to buy a hanging rope?” and threw a rope toward the crowd.

The MHP plans to bring the bill to Parliament to garner support after the summer recess ends on Oct. 1. Since it requires a constitutional amendment, at least 110 deputies need to support the bill to submit it to the speaker of Parliament; the MHP only has 70 deputies in Parliament.

3,000 executions

A moratorium on the death penalty had already been in place in Turkey since 1984. In May 2004 Turkey amended its Constitution in order to remove capital punishment in all circumstances. It ratified Protocol no. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights in February 2006.

Between 1923 when the Republic of Turkey was established until 1984, 712 capital punishments were approved by Parliament. However, between 1920 and 1950 when the Republican People’s Party (CHP) was the sole political party, more than 2,000 people were estimated to have been executed by the martial courts, which were controversial and extra-parliamentary bodies established to punish regime opponents.

Among countries around the world, almost all European states and Canada have abolished capital punishment. In Latin America, most states have completely abolished the use of capital punishment, while some, such as Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason committed during wartime. The United States, Guatemala, most of the Caribbean and the majority of democracies in Asia and Africa retain it. South Africa -- considered to be the most developed African nation and which has been a democracy since 1994 -- does not have the death penalty.

Amnesty International indicates that in 2007 the death penalty was approved for 1,457 people in 27 countries around the world. In China, more than 1,000 criminals are executed each year.

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