Politicians Clamouring for Death Penalty

In the pursuit of votes, there are no discourses of peace, democracy or human rights. Rather, nationalism, racism and discrimination are rife. Thus the killing of people by the state, the death penalty, has become a topic of discussion again.

"Some deserve it"

According to Prof. Dr. Melek Göregenli, who has conducted research on perceptions on torture in Turkey, most people consider cases in two categories, those that deserve the death penalty, and those who do not.

This means that nearly everyone may have a list of those who deserve "the death penalty, torture, maltreatment, rape, or exploitation". A kind of list of "people who do not deserve human rights".

Death penalty competition

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Devlet Bahceli of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are publicly arguing about whose fault it is that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was not hanged after his capture in 1999.

It started with Erdogan saying, "You don't become nationalist by saying you are nationalist. They give you the head of a terrorist leader as a present. You put him in prison in Imrali [a prison island in the Marmara Sea] and let the AKP pay the bill."

Erdogan was addressing the MHP who was a coalition partner in government at the time of Öcalan's capture. The same government also abolished the death penalty in order to comply with EU criteria.

Bahceli replied at a rally in eastern Turkey: "Instead of accusing the MHP of not hanging him, if you cannot find rope, here is some rope, if you can hang the separatist leader, hang him". He shouted at a person behind him on stage, "give it here", and the man quickly took a rope out of his jacket or from around his waist, and gave it to Bahceli, who then threw it into the crowd. It was obvious that this whole spectacle was staged. A bad script, a bad performance, and bad intentions!

Erdogan's answer was not slow in coming: "If you are so skillful [with the rope], if only people had sent you rope when you were in government, and you could have finished the job".

Meanwhile, Yasar Nuri Öztürk, a popular theologian-turned-politician who recently founded the "People's Ascent party" (HYP), has said that they would widen the scope of the death penalty and bring it back.

Another candidate in the upcoming elections, Kemal Yavuz, standing as an independent candidate, but with a Great Union Party (BBP) background, was able to say in a discussion programme on TV 8 that "terrorists and traitors deserve the death penalty".

The print media has also contributed to the reintroduction of a discussion on the death penalty. Radikal newspaper editor-in-chief Ismet Berkan wrote, "The [Kurdish] problem will not be solved with the hanging of Abdullah Öcalan; if it were, I would support his hanging, although I am against the death penalty."

What about human rights?

Whoever reads about human rights knows that the most basic right is the right to life, which cannot be violated under any circumstances. The state cannot only not violate this right; it also has the duty to protect the right to life.

Furthermore, this right is universal and cannot be ignored in the case of specific persons.

In October 2005, Turkey ratified the second optional protocol of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , which guarantees countries' commitment to the abolishment of the death penalty. In addition, it has also signed the 13th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights, which says that "the death penalty is to be abolished even during war and when there is a threat of war".

Death penalty not a deterrent

It is important here to remember that the death penalty, despite arguments to the contrary, does not act as an effective deterrent.

According to research of the Death Penalty Information Centre in the USA, there is no proof that executions lower crime rates:

* The crime rate in states with the death penalty is higher by 44 percent than in states without it.

* The number of murders in the USA is four times higher than the number of murders in Europe, which does not apply the death penalty.

Furthermore, death is a punishment that cannot be revoked. According to Amnesty International, 122 of the people executed in the USA since 1973 were later found to be innocent.

In Turkey rise in nationalism

Political parties in Turkey are not doing anything to address any of the pressing problems, such as the Kurdish issue, human rights, democracy, labour rights, poverty, social rights and social policies. As the General Staff is pushing for "parties of security", political parties are forced to compete in nationalism.

Politicians and Journalists calling for a return to the death penalty, should do the following:

* be educated in basic human rights

* read the Charter of Journalists' Rights and Responsibilities, which declares that defending human rights is a duty (TK/AG/EÜ)