Turkey parliament unlikely to pass death penalty: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Huseyin Bagci, a professor at the Middle East Technical University from Ankara, about the issuance of arrest warrants for 42 journalists in relation to the July 15 failed coup in Turkey.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all talk to us about the recent arrest warrants issued by Ankara for nearly 50 journalists that are allegedly in relation or have ties to the mid-July failed military coup.

Bagci: First of all today those journalists who have been taken under custody are the journalists who have been writing for Zaman newspaper, which was the organ of Fethullah Gülen movement as it is known in Turkey. Even among them is one of our colleagues who is now also among those journalists who are under custody, and we don't know how many days he will be there. But the fact is this wave of, I would say, government to get the journalists and all these related people to Fethullah Gulen movement and failed coup d’état is interesting because we expect that the number will increase more not only from the journalists but also from the Foreign Ministry, from the other ministries, state institutions.

Press TV: Let's talk about the actions carried out by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the failed military coup. He's cracked down hard on the military and on academic institutions. Many are saying that this resembles a much-desired purge carried out by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his loyalists. How do you see the post coup actions by the government in Ankara?

Bagci: First of all, concerning the military of course thousands of people have been taken and they are all those people actually who have been taken into these positions when the AKP government was in power. Also the newspaper journalists most of them have been writing for this newspaper for years and I know nearly all of them and they have been good in terms with the government of course in all these 14 years when AKP government was holding the power and still holding the power.

And this is once again an internal cleaning process between Tayyip Erdogan and his government which became now the state and those who have been acting together with them in the last 14 years. Now, they are considered as responsible for this failed coup d’état. I don't know of course exactly the background because I'm not a judge, but it is a political, I would say, action to eliminate all the possible elements which should have been part of... the failed coup d’état. And I think this wave... will continue in the coming days and everybody's of course concerned which institutions are now on the next line.

Press TV: Where does this leave Turkey's relations with Europe? European top officials have censured Ankara’s actions following the failed military coup most notably putting a big question mark over aspirations of returning the death penalty to Turkey.

Bagci: I think death penalty is not to happen from one day to another. The parliament is going to decide for this. And I think the president was kicking the ball to the parliament saying if the parliament accepts then I will ratify. So, it means the president is not alone in position to introduce the death penalty. At the moment, the discussions are there but within this parliament’s structure I do not expect that death penalty is introduced. If it is the case then indeed Turkey will have problems with the European Union because in the European Union there’s no death penalty including the Council of Europe. So, Turkey will face of course then more criticism than it has already been facing.

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