The abolishment of death penalty continues occupying...

The abolishment of death penalty continues occupying the political agenda. It is quite a simple matter to amend Article 125 of the Penal Code, which only needs a simple majority in Parliament. Amending the Constitution, however, can only be accomplished with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The abolition of the death penalty is seen as a crucial issue by a party that owes its success in the elections of April 1999 to its nationalist ideology that is opposed to any form of Kurdish nationalism. In fact, the Nationalist Movement campaigned under the slogan of "Cut off Ocalan's head." It goes without saying that the party doesn't want to have anything to do with pardoning Ocalan (or indeed with anything other than executing him).
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit commented that full membership to the EU is not possible without abolishing the death penalty. Ecevit said the problem could be solved without government intervention via agreement between the political parties in Parliament. This statement was a reflection of the dispute raging within the ruling coalition about the death penalty and of the difficulties faced by the government in coming up with a draft bill for abolishing it.
Deputy PM and leader of the coalition's senior partner MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) Devlet Bahceli reiterated that they are against the abolishment of the death penalty and they would vote against such a proposal in the Parliament. Bahceli's party is opposed to the abolition of the death penalty precisely because that would mean sparing Ocalan's life.
The other partners DSP (Democratic Left Party) and ANAP (Motherland Party) support the abolishment. The main opposition DYP (True Path Party) seems to be an outright opponent to the abolishment and the two Islamist opposition parties - the Justice and Development Party (AK) and the Saadet Party (SP) - adopted vague positions.
While opposing capital punishment on principle to speed up Turkey's accession to the EU, as opposition parties they don't want to make the government's life any easier.The stance of the military over the issue is also crucial. Former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's opposition True Path Party who figured that only the Nationalist Movement would oppose its abolition through amendment of the constitution.
Ecevit thought he had the necessary two-thirds majority to amend the constitution (367 out of a total of 550 MPs) in the bag. With this position, Ciller killed off Ecevit's initiative to abolish the death penalty by amending Article 38 of the constitution. After all, the total number of True Path and Nationalist Movement MPs (213) would preclude any vote on abolition winning a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Ciller is now demanding that the "Ocalan file" be referred to Parliament, so that it can do "what it has to do." Ciller's position is rooted in domestic Turkish politics. The former prime minister fears losing her popular base, especially since her right-wing party shares its constituency with the Nationalist Movement.
The Turkish judiciary, meanwhile, is awaiting the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights on Ocalan's appeal.