Daniel Holtgen, director of communications at the Council of Europe (CoE) and spokesperson of Secretary-General Thorbjørn Jagland, has dismissed plans by Turkey to introduce the death penalty, saying that such a move would be against membership in the council.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that legislation to reinstate capital punishment, which was abolished in 2004, will soon be taken to Parliament by the Justice And Development Party (AKP).
“Executing the death penalty is incompatible with membership of the Council of Europe,” Holtgen wrote in a message from his Twitter account on Sunday.
Erdoğan and the government have been pushing for reinstatement of the death penalty since a failed coup attempt on July 15.
EU High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini also stressed in a statement on July 18 that “no country can become an EU member state if it introduces the death penalty.”
