Germany rules out Turks voting for death penalty


Turkish citizens living in Germany would not be allowed to vote in a Turkish referendum on reintroducing the death penalty, a government spokesman said Friday."It is politically unthinkable that we would agree to a vote on a matter that is contradictory to our constitution and to European values," Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said during a government press conference."If another country wants to hold an election or vote in its embassies or consulates here in Germany, it is subject to approval" and Germany is "not obliged" to grant that approval, Seibert said.Martin Schulz, former president of the European Parliament (EP) and German Social Democrats' candidate for the federal elections in September, said on Friday that the government should not allow voting in Germany in a possible referendum on whether to reintroduce the death penalty in Turkey."We cannot allow voting in Germany on an instrument that contradicts our values and our constitution," Schulz told to Der Spiegel. After the April 16 referendum ended in a victory for the "yes" camp, discussions on the reenactment of the death penalty through a referendum have come to the agenda.Germany is home to nearly 3 million Turkish immigrants, and Turkey's April 16 referendum was widely debated in the country. More than 46 percent of eligible voters took to the polls in Germany in Turkish referendum and 63 percent of them favored "yes."