ANKARA, Aug 3: Turkish legislators passed on Saturday a set of crucial democracy reforms, among them the abolition of the death penalty and Kurdish cultural freedoms, breaking one-time taboos to boost the country’s lagging bid to join the European Union, the parliament speaker announced.

The package, a last-gasp legislative effort to come closer to EU norms before MPs fan out for electioneering ahead of early polls in November, was endorsed on a show of hands after a non-stop session of 16 hours, which started on Friday.

The abolition of the death penalty except during wartime — the first article in the package that will save jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan from the gallows — won unexpected support in the house and set the pace for other politically critical changes.

The deputies legalized one-time taboos such as radio and television broadcasts in the language of the sizeable Kurdish minority and allowed private courses to teach Kurdish on the condition that those activities are not used to propagate violence and separatism.

The reforms have been highly controversial for a nation traumatized by a bloody struggle between Ocalan’s rebels and the army that has claimed some 36,500 lives since 1984.

In other major changes that the EU would welcome, the parliament expanded freedom of expression, eased restrictions on public demonstrations and associations, broadened the rights of non-Muslim religious foundations and introduced strict measures against illegal immigration.

The reforms now need the largely ceremonial approval of the president to come into effect.

They are expected to increase Turkey’s chances of obtaining a date for the opening of accession talks with the EU by the end of the year, when the European bloc is to draw up its enlargement calendar.—AFP