Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced plans to bring back the death penalty in Turkey following last months failed coup.
Erdogan told a rally of millions of people in Istanbul on August 7 that he will help push through a new death penalty law in parliament – which he says will allow him to administer justice to those responsible for the attempted coup.
Hurriyetdailynews.com reports:
He wished his condolences to the 240 people killed by coup soldiers, of whom 172 were civilians, 63 were police officers and five were soldiers. He also wished speedy recovery to the 2,195 wounded.
During Erdoğan’s speech the crowd repeatedly shouted that they wanted death penalty to be reintroduced.
“If the parliament accepts the reintroduction of death penalty, I will accept it,” he told the crowd, adding that the death penalty exists in the U.S., Japan and “many other countries.”
“If the people want death penalty, I think the political parties will also accept it,” he also said, as he noted that the death penalty existed until 1984 in Turkey.
Erdoğan said the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is blamed for the coup attempt three weeks ago, must be destroyed within the framework of the law.
Saying that the people showed that they won’t accept slavery on the night of the failed coup bid, Erdoğan added that Gülen movement calculated many mischiefs, but couldn’t take the people into account.
“Night of July 15 coup bid showed this country cannot be undone,” Erdoğan said.
“Our presence today upsets our enemies just like it did on the morning of July 16,” he said.