“HANG THEM IN TAKSIM” Europe, Turkey and the Future of the Death Penalty
“HANG THEM IN TAKSIM” Europe, Turkey and the Future of the Death Penalty

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Penal Policy
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: Death Penalty in Turkey; Human Rights in Turkey; Council of Europe; Recep Tayyip Erdogan;
Summary/Abstract: For almost a year now, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed, in speech after speech, that he is ready to restore the death penalty. Some have dismissed this as political theatre. And yet, Turkey would not be the first country to reintroduce the death penalty after it had fallen out of use. The Kingdom of Italy abolished the death penalty for civilians in 1889, only to see it reintroduced by Mussolini in 1930. The United States did not carry out any executions between 1968 and 1980. Turkey itself has had years of de facto moratoria on executions in the 1960s and 1970s, before carrying out more executions. Human rights progress is never irreversible. || This is a matter of holding the line on a hard-won human rights achievement. It is in the vital interest of all Europeans that this red line is not crossed anywhere in Europe. For Turkey to reintroduce the death penalty – the last execution took place in 1984 – would constitute a serious setback in the global struggle against capital punishment. Europeans should take the threat of the return of capital punishment in Turkey seriously. The EU and the Council of Europe should take every step they can, in time, to make this as unlikely as possible – in Turkey and anywhere else in Europe.

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