On June 23, Interior Minister Otto Schily (SPD), said...

On June 23, Interior Minister Otto Schily (SPD), said that if Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence were carried out it would make Turkey's joining the European Union more problematical. "The German Government is seriously committed to giving Turkey a European perspective. Our efforts would be considerably compromised, however, should Turkey turn a deaf ear to the issue of the death penalty," he explained. Green MP Claudia Roth, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights, also said that Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence is a violation of human rights. "The death penalty violates European human rights standards and Turkey must understand that these standards are not negotiable," Roth observed, while recalling that Ankara's permanence in the Council of Europe is dependent upon the suspension of capital punishment.