The Turkish parliament cleared a major obstacle to EU accession talks (AFP)

ANKARA, September 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Turkish parliament adopted a far-reaching overhaul of the country's 78-year-old penal code Sunday, September 26, clearing a major obstacle to Turkey's bid to start accession talks with the expanding European Union.

The reform is widely seen as the last legal reform required to align Turkish legislation with basic EU political norms, which Brussels has set as a condition for the opening of membership talks with candidate nations, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lawmakers endorsed the new penal code at an emergency debate, called by the government after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to drop a controversial plan to criminalize adultery, ending a week of crisis with the EU.

The reformed penal code expands freedom of expression, grants greater individual freedoms, increases penalties for rights abusers and torturers and protects the environment.

The legislation introduces life terms for perpetrators of “honor killings,” the feudal practice of killing women perceived as unvirtous, which still persists mainly in the rural southeast.

Other amendments bring jail terms for the sexual molestation of children, and the trafficking of human organs.

The president now has to ratify the law. It will take effect April 1, 2005 , barring a few provisions which will come into force earlier or later.

Erdogan’s U-turn

Erdogan, left, changed his mind after meeting Verheugen

In Sunday's session, the opposition accused Erdogan of having dragged Turkey into a futile row with the EU on the adultery clause and mocked his U-turn after his meeting with EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen.

“We could not make him understand -- only Verheugen, in Brussels , managed to,” one opposition legislator said.

Erdogan did not attend the session, opting instead for a trip to the south of the country.

The row on whether adultery should be made a jailable offense had prompted the government to withdraw the bill from parliament last week, sparking an unexpected crisis between Turkey and the EU.

Following fence-mending talks with Verheugen in Brussels Thursday, September 23, Erdogan said plans to criminalize adultery had been abandoned.

Verheugen responded that Erdogan's assurances left “no more obstacles on the table” ahead of the release of his progress report on Turkey October 6.

The report will form the basis for a December 17 decision by EU leaders on whether to begin membership talks with Turkey that has been an official candidate since 1999.