Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer summoned the heads...

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer summoned the heads of all parties to discuss the reforms Turkey must implement to start membership talks with the European Union.
They include abolishing the death penalty and granting broader rights to the country's 12 million Kurds, including the right to broadcasting and teaching in Kurdish. But Premier Bulent Ecevit, who was hospitalized twice in the past month, couldn't attend the meeting.
Nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli (MHP) said that his party would pull out of the government rather than back the reforms. The National Action Party (MHP), the hardline rightwing member of the three-party coalition, said it would not create a "government crisis" if its partners voted with the opposition on reforms the MHP continued to oppose.
Bahceli said other coalition partners could push through the EU reforms with the help of opposition parties. The party's move opens the way for the Democratic Left party (DSP) of Bulent Ecevit, the ailing prime minister, and the Motherland party, the junior coalition partner, to vote together with opposition Islamists to abolish the death penalty and remove a ban on Kurdish-language education and broadcasting.