Turkey has taken a major step towards lifting restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language and easing other laws criticised by human rights activists and seen as a block to Ankara's EU ambitions.
Parliament voted late on Tuesday to change several articles of the constitution, including one on the use of Kurdish, as part of a package of 37 reforms designed to bring Turkey into line with the EU which it hopes to join.
Yesterday, parliament was expected to consider an article restricting the death penalty to crimes of "terrorism" and in times of war. The change falls short of the EU's desire to see the death penalty scrapped entirely. Turkey has not carried out an execution since 1984 but capital punishment remains on the statute books.
As much of the world considers tightening security measures in response to the September 11th attacks on the US, Turkey's parliament has rallied around the constitutional changes that will boost human rights in the country.
Turkey was made a candidate for EU membership in 1999 but has been told Ankara cannot start membership negotiations until it meets strict economic and political criteria, particularly in the area of human rights.
Among the nine articles approved on Tuesday, one involved reducing the maximum period suspects can be held without charge to four days, and another lifted the ban on publishing in languages other than Turkish. The language issue has been contentious in Turkey with nationalists, particularly the army, fearing the use of Kurdish threatens the unity of the state.
The changes voted in appeared to have no direct impact on legal curbs on Kurdish language education. More than 30,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) started a violent campaign for independence. Though fighting has fallen off since the conviction of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, Turkey is still vigilant and has vowed to wipe out the PKK.
The reforms were backed by parties across the spectrum and the nine changes received the necessary three-fifths majority in the parliament.