HDP Starts Legislative Year in Front of Prison

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The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Parliamentary Group has started the new legislative year by issuing a statement for the press in front of Edirne Prison in which HDP co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş is kept.

Stressing that the MPs are unlawfully kept in the prison, HDP co-Chair Serpil Kemalbay speaking for the parliamentary assembly said:

“Our Group Chair has been taken hostage in Edirne Prison. We find it meaningful to the start the new legislative year in Edirne.

“We are here to reveal the stage where the AKP (Justice and Development Party) Palace government has dragged to parliament to even though the parliaments are supposed to be the places that reflect peoples’ will, AKP (Justice and Development Party) Palace government, to draw attention to the anti-democratic picture in the parliament and to show that we haven’t gotten used to a picture of 10 MPs being taken hostage.

“The parliament drifts away from democracy. We are here as part of the democratic struggle we have been carrying out”.

9 HDP MPs, 1 CHP MP behind bars

Click - The Status of HDP MPs to Date

The names of the HDP MPs who are still under arrest are:

* Selahattin Demirtaş - HDP Co-Chairperson

* Figen Yüksekdağ - Former HDP Co-Chairperson (She was relieved of her MP duties and removed from HDP membership on February 21, 2017)

* İdris Baluken - HDP Diyarbakır MP

* Selma Irmak - HDP Hakkari MP

* Gülser Yıldırım - HDP Mardin MP

* Ferhat Encü - HDP Şırnak MP

* Abdullah Zeydan - Hakkari MP

* Çağlar Demirel - Diyarbakır MP

* Burcu Çelik - Muş MP

* Enis Berberoğlu - CHP İstanbul MP

(HK/TK)