At an inauguration ceremony for a new center today, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that he is amenable to reinstituting the death penalty.
“If the people of Turkey want and the country’s parliament decides to reinstate the death penalty, I am ready to approve this decision,” he said.
Erdogan made the statement in Istanbul, at the inauguration of a center named after former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, a Turkish politician, engineer and academic.
Though Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2001, its reinstitution has been discussed following the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016.
Earlier, Omer Celik, the Turkish Minister for EU Affairs, had said that reinstating the death penalty hadn’t been up for consideration by parliament.