Did Boris Johnson just defend Turkish death penalty plans?

‘Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was attacked by other EU ministers after he warned that going too hard on Turkey’s potential introduction of the death penalty would alienate a key regional and NATO ally.
The former London mayor was at a conference of foreign ministers in Brussels when he said that Turkey, which he called a key ally, should not be “pushed into a corner” over the death penalty. “We should not overreact in a way that is against our collective interests,” Johnson cautioned, according to the Times.
Diplomats told the paper that EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini “slapped him down” and said EU capital punishment rules would clearly rule out membership for a country which insisted upon the death penalty.’
Read more: Did Boris Johnson just defend Turkish death penalty plans?