Page 192 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

martyrs. They are almost lobbying to get the murderers of 40,000 of
our soldiers released, and even suggest that when this is done, it
shouldn't be called an amnesty, but "a release from captivity." They
are brazen enough to suggest to the Turkish people that "they didn't
commit any crime." The fact that such outrageous remarks can be
made in our country shows that the situation is very risky. We have
to make it very clear that we will never allow such an amnesty to take

place and that our people, as one, will stand against such a prospect.

There are some important points we believe the supporters of
amnesty in Turkey and the representatives of the foreign deep states
should be reminded of:

• As everyone would recall, amnesty has been tried in the
past in our country related to this matter but this only

increased terror and crime rates. The amnesty proposal pio-
neered by former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit's wife Rahşan
Ecevit was passed in the Parliament in 2000 with Law No.#
4616 on Conditional Release and more than 44,000 people
were released as a result. In the following three years, the
number of convicts increased by 20,000 and reached 64,000.
Rahşan Ecevit would later admit that it was a mistake with
grim results, saying, "I wanted amnesty for the helpless, but mur-
derers ended up benefitting from it." Now, 15 years after this

amnesty, referred to as the "Rahşan Amnesty," the number of
convicts in prison has reached 160,000.

• DHKP-C terrorist Ecevit Şanlı, who attacked the US
embassy in Turkey with a bomb, had been pardoned during

the administration of Ahmet Necdet Sezer on the basis of
health concerns. Apparently, 200 out of 260 convicts that were
pardoned during Sezer's administration were members of
groups such as DHKP-C, Dev-Sol, PKK, THKP/ML and
TİKKO. These released people have taken part in numerous

190 America's Failure to Perceive the PKK