ANKARA
Thousands gathered at squares across Turkey Wednesday to voice their condemnation of the mass death sentences handed down by an Egyptian court against hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members.
A number of non-governmental organizations along with youth branches of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party held rallies around the country including the cities of Antalya, Kayseri, Izmir and Sakarya.
The demonstrators put up symbolic scaffolds in the main squares and carried placards reading "Humanity is dying, world remains mute", "Oppression of Sisi, shame of the world" and "Egypt has never changed, its dungeons are still full of Yousef's (the Prophet who was unduly thrown into a dungeon in then Egypt)." Messages were also read out decrying the death sentences and maintaining Turkey's clear and firm stance against the coup regime that removed Egypt’s first democratically elected president of Egypt last summer.
Petition campaigns for the annulment of the death penalty have also been launched in some of the cities where the protests were held.
Meanwhile, a member of the Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Investigation Commission, Levent Gok, submitted a petition to the head of commission calling for an urgent meeting to discuss the mass death sentences.
In his petition, Gok asserted that the Egyptian court ruling is unjust in terms of the trial period length and its procedures, warning that the rulings' implementation may lead to further polarization within the Egyptian community provoking feelings of hatred and revenge.
Later on Wednesday, Turkey's National Assembly adopted a joint declaration that condemned the death sentences.
Signed by all political parties represented in the parliament, the declaration urged Egypt's administration not to implement the sentences.
"The joint wish of the Turkish nation is that these sentences -- which may cast a pall on Egypt's struggle for democracy, as well as its hopes, dreams and future, and be remembered as a disgraceful event in the history of mankind -- will not be implemented," the declaration said.
The international community, including officials from the United Nations, EU, the U.S. and human rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International, has also condemned the death sentences.
All the defendants, including 397 people being tried in absentia, faced charges of committing violence, in Minya in August 2013, following the violent dispersal by security forces of pro-democracy sit-ins in Cairo and Giza, which left hundreds of protesters dead.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
