The last execution in Turkey took place in October...

The last execution in Turkey took place in October 1984 and provoked an international outcry. Hidir Aslan, aged 28, was executed after being convicted of belonging to an illegal organization. He had not been convicted of any killings.
A de facto moratorium on executions has been in place since 1984.
The retention of the death penalty in Turkey was widely attributed to the political pressure for the execution of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Ocalan was sentenced to death on June 29, 1999 for his role in 16 years of guerrilla warfare that cost 30,000 lives in the Turkish southeast.
In January 2000, Turkey suspended the death sentence on the Kurdish rebel leader at the request of the European Court of Human Rights, pending its review of the case. However in October 2002, before a ruling was issued, Turkey's state security court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, in line with Turkey's move to abolish the death sentence in August to meet European Union human rights criteria. On March 12, 2003, the Court ruled that Ocalan did not receive a fair trial.