'It would be madness': Will HDP deputies be stripped of immunity?

Photo: HDP/File

Click to read the article in Turkish

The summaries of proceedings seeking the lift of legislative immunity for nine Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers have been submitted to the Speaker's Office of the parliament.

Prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the summaries of proceedings concern the case regarding the 2014 Kobanê protests, where more than 40 people lost their lives in the Kurdish-majority regions.

Including the MPs, some 108 defendants in the case face an aggravated life sentence on numerous charges, including "managing a terrorist organization" and "attempted overthrow."

CLICK - 108 people face aggravated life sentence over 2014 protests in Kurdish-majority cities

CLICK - Prosecutors seek lift of immunity for HDP co-chair, eight lawmakers over 2014 Kobanê protests

HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan, Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairs Meral Danış-Beştaş and Saruhan Oluç, and MPs Fatma Kurtulan, Garo Paylan, Hüda Kaya, Serpil Kemalbay Pekgözegü, Sezai Temelli and Pero Dündar will lose immunity if a simple majority is achieved in the parliamentary vote.

The summaries of proceedings will be first sent to the parliament's Constitution and Justice Joint Committee and then to the general assembly.

"The judiciary is being used against our party"

MP Danış-Beştaş said that there are currently about 1,300 summaries of proceedings concerning HDP lawmakers and added that this number has nothing to do with law but with politics.

"Using the judiciary as an instrument against our party has become a method. These summaries of proceedings are a result of this," she said.

"The European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber also analyzes this situation in detail in its judgment about the release of Selahattin Demirtaş.

"It doesn't only say Demirtaş is unjustly and unlawfully in prison but also declared all political attacks, all summaries of proceedings, pressures and obstacles against our party unlawful.

"Like gold, this judgment is valid all over the world and it confirmed everything we have said so far. The summaries of proceedings and the discourse against our party should be discussed from this aspect."

"They avoid discussing real problems by focusing on HDP"

Recalling that nine HDP lawmakers, including then co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, were stripped of legislative immunity and arrested in 2016, Danış-Beştaş said, "They tried it in 2016. The HDP has not shrunk but grown. We didn't lose a bit of the support we get from our people, on the contrary, we are growing even more. So, Turkey can go nowhere with these debates.

"The debates over us is their debate to save their ruling power. They are carrying out these attacks for their own survival. Avoiding discussing real problems by focusing on the HDP means punishing the peoples of Turkey.

"Turkey's real problems are not being discussed. Unemployment, poverty, feminicides are not being talked about. While there are many problems in this country, the summaries of proceedings for HDP deputies, the lift of immunities, [Interior Minister] Süleyman Soylu's slander against one of our deputies are being talked about. All this is done consciously, the agenda is manipulated through the HDP.

"While there is the ECtHR decision, such madness can't be done. On the one hand, they say 'We will make a constitution with all parties,' they say 'reform,' on the other hand, they attempt to lift immunities.

"In such a situation, the politics of Turkey will be entirely affected. The politics of Turkey can't progress without the HDP. The elections on March 31 [2019 local elections], June 24 [2018] and June 7 [2015] showed that. HDP determines the direction of politics in Turkey. HDP wants peace, says policies of war are not the solution.

(RT/VK)