TURKEY: Turkey pushed on yesterday to include a controversial adultery ban in a package of penal code reforms, the main opposition party said.
The plan to jail cheating spouses has outraged Turkish liberals, worried financial markets and annoyed the EU. Only recently the government appeared to back away from the issue.
But Mr Ali Topuz, a senior official in the centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP), said the government had merely airbrushed its proposal, replacing the word "adultery" with "unfaithfulness". "We said, in whatever form you bring it to parliament, we are going to oppose it and even walk out if necessary," he said.
In a later parliamentary debate on the family section of the penal code, no mention of adultery was made.
Nobody was available yesterday following the debate to confirm what the government's intentions were on the issue. Several EU foreign ministers have said any plan to criminalise adultery might jeopardise Turkey's chances to join the Union when EU leaders decide in December whether to open entry talks.
But the government says the measure is not religiously inspired. Instead, it would strengthen women's rights and protect the family, it said.