Elected MP Dicle Barred from Parliament

Tension is running high in Turkey after the decision of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to deprive Hatip Dicle from his right to deputyship. The decision was given unanimously on Tuesday evening (21 June).

Dicle is a detained defendant of the KCK trial regarding the Union of Kurdistan Communities that also includes armed wings like the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He was running for the parliamentary elections on 21 June as an independent candidate and was elected. In 2009, the politician received a one-year and eight-month prison sentence on charges of "making propaganda for PKK".

On Thursday evening (21 June), Dicle was taken from the Diyarbakır D Type Closed Kapa Prison (south-eastern Turkey) to the Presidency of the Diyarbakır Provincial Election Board.

Dicle was accompanied by four lawyers when he gave his statement to Judge Ömer Hakan Baştımar, Deputy Chair of the Provincial Election Board.

He stated that in his opinion the decision to disbar him given by the Ankara 12^th High Criminal Court was faulty.

"I served in prison for more than 4.5 years because of my previous conviction. However, the decision to strip of my deputyship was based on my two latest arrests. My lawyers lodged and appeal with the Ankara 12^th High Criminal Court on my behalf. I am presenting the documents related to the appeal. Therefore, I will make my actual defence after the appeal will have been decided. I request additional time for my defence".

AKP candidate Eronat took over

As reported on Thursday, Dicle's mandate was taken over by Oya Eronat, candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Article 39 of the Members of Parliament Election Law defines that the party that gained the most votes is to be given priority in case an independent candidate elected to parliament loses his/her competence of eligibility.

Eronat lost her 17-year-old son Eren Şahin in an explosion in front of a private tutoring institution in Diyarbakır in 2008.

DTK: "We will not go to parliament"

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Permanent Assembly convened in Diyarbakır on Wednesday to discuss the decision of the YSK. The DTK announced, "We suggest following our decision that we will not go to parliament if there is only one single deputy missing". The deputies of the Peace and Democracy Party are meeting this morning (23) in Diyarbakır to discuss further proceedings.

The DTK reminded their decision previously taken together with the (BDP), the Central Steering Board and the Parliamentary faction that they would boycott parliament if there was only one single independent deputy missing.

According to the YüksekovaHaber news site, the DTK called on the involved deputies "to publicly declare their will regarding this decision openly and clearly"

Cemal Coşkun, current spokesman of the DTK, made an announcement after the meeting. He said that the YSK's decision to disbar Dicle was a decision of elimination and intimidation against extraordinary endeavours and efforts made towards a peaceful solution (of the Kurdish question). Coşkun said that the decision lacked a legal explanation.

The spokesman said that a meeting of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan with his lawyers planned for today has been "obstructed". Coşkun declared that they did not recognize this decision which "ignored the will of the people" and that they did not consider it to be legal.

Kürkçü: "One of the barricades put up against deputies of the Block"

Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Member of Parliament of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block in Mersin, assessed the decision in an interview with bianet.

"The decision to quash Dicle's right to go to parliament and to elect another deputy instead as a whole should be seen as a coup of an institution by disregarding many parameters such as law, politics, conscience, moral and history as parameters the decision should have been based on. This is the way I see it".

"I think it is impossible to consider this as an ordinary legal procedure. The decision came after the approval of Dicle's mandate by the Court of Appeals".

"This is just one of the barricades willingly created against the Members of Parliament of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block. The lawyers will do whatever is necessary of course. However, I know that public conscience will not accept this. And I know that the entire number of deputies of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block and especially the ones from Dicle's electoral constituency in Diyarbakır will announce their stance on this issue. Even though I cannot say anything definite about this stance, I know that we are going to assume an attitude of protest", Kürkçü emphasized. (HK/ŞA/)