Turkey: Pro-Kurdish MP loses his parliamentary capacity

THE Turkish The National Assembly today removed the parliamentary capacity from the pro-Kurdish MP Omer Farouk Gergerlioglu after the confirmation of his conviction for spreading terrorist propaganda, continuing a long repression of the third largest parliamentary party, reports APE.

The movement escalates the pressure to People’s Democratic Party (HDP) to which it belongs and which is facing growing nationalist calls to be banned due to alleged links to fighters. Many of his elected MPs, mayors and executives have been jailed and fired in recent years.

“The will of the people cannot be trampled on. “Wanting peace is not a crime,” Gergerlioglu, a human rights activist, said in a Twitter post, vowing to resist a “coup” he called it, against the assembly shortly before the president’s reading of the case. decision.

Withdrawal of the HDP reduces the number of seats in the HDP to 55 out of a total of 600 seats. Two other HDP MPs were ousted last year due to convictions against them.

Together with Gergerlioglou, 14 HDP MPs have been fired since 2016.

The HDP criticized the appellate court’s decision, saying that the legal proceedings against Gergerlioglu should have been stopped given his parliamentary capacity and that he was punished simply because he shared the link to a report on Twitter.

Gergerlioglu was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2018 for sharing a report on possible talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

A longtime human rights activist, Gergerlioglu is known for his support in many cases, especially in the fight against ill-treatment, especially torture, of detainees.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AK Party and their nationalist allies accuse the HDP of links to the PKK. The HDP denies having such connections.

You may also like

Ireland will welcome 52 students from Gaza
World
Flora

Ireland will welcome 52 students from Gaza

Fifty -two Gaza students will arrive in Ireland this week, taking advantage of university scholarships, Ireland Foreign Minister Simon Harris