Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

TURKEY: PM SAYS GOV’T NOT CONTEMPLATING RETURN OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

March 31, 2011: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the return of capital punishment is “not on the government’s agenda.”  
Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002 as part of its EU membership efforts.
The debates over whether or not the death sentence must return has risen again in the aftermath of the brutal deaths of three children in Kayseri whose bodies were recently discovered.
The Grand Unity Party (BBP) has started collecting signatures for a campaign demanding the return of capital punishment.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the three children in 2009, who were visiting neighbors to collect candy as part of the tradition of Eid al-Fitr, the religious festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, was finally solved over the weekend.
The key suspect in the missing Kayseri children case, Uğur Veli Gülışık, was arrested and taken to Kayseri Prison after he confessed to brutally killing the three youngsters. Gülışık also confessed to raping one of the children, which has led to further public outrage.
Speaking at a ceremony in Ankara yesterday, Erdoğan said capital punishment has recently been discussed but that it is not on their agenda. (Sources: todayszaman.com, 31, 03/2011)