US says closure case against HDP will ‘further undermine democracy in Turkey’

* Photo: State Department archive

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Ned Price, the Spokesperson of the United States (US) Department of State, has released a written statement about the closure case filed against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and HDP's Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu being stripped of his MP status. Amid these recent developments that unfolded yesterday (March 17), Spokesperson Ned Price has said:

"The United States is closely following events in Turkey, including troubling moves on March 17 to strip Member of Parliament Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu of his parliamentary seat.

"We are also monitoring the initiation of efforts to dissolve the People's Democratic Party, a decision that would unduly subvert the will of Turkish voters, further undermine democracy in Turkey, and deny millions of Turkish citizens their chosen representation.

"We call on the Government of Turkey to respect freedom of expression in line with protections in the Turkish constitution and with Turkey's international obligations."

Stance of Biden administration

Shortly after Democrats' Joe Biden took office on January 20, the US Department of State also made a statement about the continued detention of former Co-Chair of the HDP Selahattin Demirtaş and raised concerns about "punishments with political motives", underlining that such actions "repress political plurality and restrict free political discussion."

What happened?

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, with his prison sentence of 2 years, 6 months upheld by the Court of Cassation, has been stripped of his MP status after the final ruling of the court was read out at the Plenary Session of the Parliament on March 17.

Shortly afterwards, the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation has filed a closure case against the HDP by appealing to the Constitutional Court. In the indictment prepared by Chief Public Prosecutor Şahin, there is also a request for political ban on 697 HDP politicians.

In the event that the Constitutional Court concludes that the related people, with their statements and actions, have caused the total closure of the party, they shall not be the founder, member, executive or inspector of another political party for five years starting from the day when the top court's detailed ruling of party closure is published in the Official Gazette. (PT/SD)