Turkey's foreign minister called for the abolition...

Turkey's foreign minister called for the abolition of the death penalty from Turkish law to facilitate Ankara's bid to join the European Union.
Ismail Cem said the death penalty was the biggest stumbling block to Turkey joining the EU: "You can negotiate the nuances on some subjects but not on the death penalty," he said.
"The one question which is clear and without any ambiguity is the death penalty. The EU will not accept that the death penalty still exists in our laws." Cem added that he hoped a package of constitutional reforms, adopted by the Turkish Parliament in October 2001, would become law in the next few weeks.