Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again brought up the issue of restoring the death penalty, vowing to approve such legislation if parliament passes it, after the murder of a woman by her ex-husband last week sparked nationwide outrage, the Hürriyet Daily News reported.
“Everything is expected from the state. The public insisted on the death penalty and I, as president, said that I would have approved reinstatement of capital punishment if parliament had voted for it. Today, I have the same stance,” Erdoğan told private broadcaster CNN Türk on Thursday.
The president’s remarks came about a week after Emine Bulut was brutally murdered by her ex-husband, who stabbed her to death in a café before the eyes of her 10-year-old daughter. The video of the attack was published online, stirring nationwide outrage.
The president said that after the killing of Bulut, he told Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül to take all necessary steps within the law.
“We also need to do something else. I am saying this loud and clear; I say we should [reinstate] the death penalty,” he said.
“Some people raise human rights issues [regarding the death penalty]. They say, ‘How can you demand something like this, this does not exist in Europe.’ Are we going to avoid the true and right thing just because it doesn’t exist in Europe?” Erdoğan said.