Turkey abolished capital punishment more than a decade agoas part of Ankara's bid to enter the European Union, but calls to bring it backhave multiplied after the gruesome killings.
Yusuf Yigitalp, deputy leader of the Islamic Saadet(Felicity) Party, said scrapping the death penalty had sparked a surge incrimes and bringing it back was a "must".
"Today capital punishment is applied in Westerncountries. The death penalty is in place in the United States and in Europe forcertain crimes," he told the conservative Milli Gazete newspaper.
Ankara abolished capital punishment in 2002 as part ofreforms to aid its EU bid, enshrining it in its constitution two years later.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that reintroducingcapital punishment was impossible if Turkey wanted to join the bloc and thegovernment would instead work to ensure full-life sentences for child murders.
"These incidents are a kind of capital offence,"Erdogan said on Friday. "An aggravated life sentence is on our agenda evenif we cannot reinstate (the death penalty)."
Aggravated murder in Turkey means full-life imprisonment.
- String of vicious killings -
The calls to reintroduce state executions come after severalgruesome child murders.
In one, a six-year-old girl was stabbed, tortured and set onfire, according to preliminary police findings reported in local media.
The suspected murderer, described only as 20-year-old S.A.,reportedly confessed to the crime, saying he had lured the girl into his car bysaying they were going for a picnic before tying her up and attacking her.
"I closed my eyes and stabbed her. She fell down. Ipoured gasoline on her and lit it with a match. She started to scream," hewas quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.
In another shocking killing earlier in the month, anine-year-old boy was found raped and strangled in the eastern province ofKars.
Surveillance cameras showed the 23-year-old suspect drivingthe boy to a remote spot where he committed the crime.
Local media also broadcast a picture of the suspect posingnext to a red car while the boy took his photo before the murder.
And two weeks ago, a four-year-old boy, identified as C.C.,was also reportedly found savagely murdered in a barn in the Aegean province ofAydin.
- 'Children need to scream' -
The killings have also sparked criticism of governmentefforts to address the issue of child safety after Family Minister AysenurIslam urged parents to take steps like teaching their children to scream.
"They should also know how to behave when they meet astranger, the same as how they should know their hands will burn when they touchfire," she said on April 30.
"Our children need to scream in order to make theirenvironment aware when they face a situation which they do not want," saidIslam.
But Ezgi Koman, children rights centre coordinator at GundemCocuk (Agenda Child) Association, said it was a "superficialproposal" that showed the state has no idea how to tackle the problem ofchild safety.
"It is apparent that screaming does not work in mostcases. Many children are kidnapped with their mouths covered," she toldAFP.
"The state's responsibility is to create a secureenvironment."
The association says 633 children were killed in Turkeyduring 2013, up from 609 the previous year.
Aylin Ilden, a child psychologist, said the public outrageover the murders does not reflect an actual upswing in such crimes.
"These things have always happened, both in Turkey andin the world," she said.
Ilden said most abuse happens in a family environment, wherechildren feel more secure.
"Intra-family child sexual abuse cases are usuallywhitewashed in Turkey as they are an embarrassment," she said.
"In such cases, children are often defenceless andtargeted by those whom they trust the most, usually male members in the family.That's why mothers should also be trained to spot the offence."
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