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Erdogan announces Turkish parliament will consider bringing back death penalty Erdogan announces Turkish parliament will consider bringing back the death penalty
(35 minutes later)
Turkey's parliament is to consider reintroducing the death penalty, the Turkish President has said. The Turkish president has said he will ask parliament to consider reintroducing the death penalty.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously said he would approve the return of the death penalty in Turkey if that was what the people and parliament wanted. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was "convinced" his proposal to punish those behind July's failed military coup would be approved.
That was what he told the crowd at a vast rally in Istanbul earlier this year following the failed military coup in July. “Our government will take this [proposal on capital punishment] to parliament, he said in a speech in Ankara.
Now the policy will be debated in parliament, reported AFP. "I am convinced that parliament will approve it, and when it comes back to me, I will ratify it."
More to follow... Crowds at the ceremony to inaugurate a high-speed train station in the Turkish capital chanted: “We want the death penalty!”
“Soon, soon, don't worry. It's happening soon, God willing,” said the President.
President Erdogan has previously said he would approve the return of the death penalty in Turkey.
He told the crowd at a vast rally in Istanbul this summer following the attempted coup on 15 July he would bring back capital punishment if that was what the people and parliament wanted.
The death penalty was abolished in Turkey in 2004 as the nation sought accession to the European Union.
Relations between Brussels and Ankara have been strained since Turkey responded to the coup by launching a relentless crackdown against alleged plotters in state institutions, amid calls from the EU to act within the rule of law.
“The West says this, the West says that. Excuse me, but what counts is not what the West says. What counts is what my people say,” he said in his speech on Saturday.
More than 35,000 people have been arrested in the crackdown unleashed after the failed coup, according to official data.