Turkey Split By Plan to Criminalise Adultery

Turkey's devout Muslim leader, Tayyip Erdogan, has defended his government's plans to criminalise adultery, despite protests that have shown the issue is dividing the country.

Mr Erdogan, whose AK party has its roots in political Islam, said at the weekend that outlawing marital infidelity is a vital step towards preserving the family and "human honour". Although Turkey aspires to join the European Union it did not have to adopt its "imperfect" western morals, he insisted.

"The family is a sacred institution for us. The stronger the family, the stronger the country. If the family is weakened, that country is doomed to destruction," the prime minister said in an interview with Turkey's Sabah newspaper.

The proposal, which has infuriated feminists and much of the media, is likely to cloud talks in Ankara today between Mr Erdogan and the European enlargement commissioner, Günter Verheugen.

A similar anti-adultery law was overturned by the country's constitutional court in 1996 on the grounds that it unfairly penalised women.

With Turkey under pressure to expand women's rights, the plan "could harm [its] image," said an EU spokesman, Jean-Christophe Filori.

Ankara, which has passed a flurry of pro-EU reforms under Mr Erdogan, hopes to secure a start date for European accession negotiations this December.

Mr Verheugen's five-day visit is deemed crucial in ascertaining whether Ankara is ready to open membership talks.

But EU diplomats based in the largely Muslim state said the attempt to crack down on adultery could strengthen the hand of countries opposed to Turkey joining the EU.

Although, in the face of the public outcry, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has vowed to vote against it, the ruling Islamists control a comfortable majority in parliament.

Women's groups and other activists have announced a mass protest outside the House on September 14, when legislators are expected to discuss the proposed changes to the body of law. However, Mr Erdogan said the proposed law would strengthen equality between the sexes because, unlike its earlier version, it would apply to both men and women.

Violators will face the same three-year prison term.

But critics, who include much of Turkey's western-oriented elite, contend the move will not only distance the country from European norms but align it to Islamic law-based states such as Saudi Arabia, where adulterers are stoned to death.

Liz Amado, at the Women for Women's Human Rights group in Istanbul, said: "No modern country has such a law. It will legitimise the state interfering in private lives, and it will be used against women."