Second pro-Kurdish lawmaker kicked out of Turkey Parliament

After the February ouster of HDP’s imprisoned co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, Aydogan is the second pro-Kurdish MP who loses her lawmaker status in the Turkish Parliament.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday announced it had stripped the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Nursel Aydogan of her parliamentary status over her conviction by a court in a terrorism-related trial.

After the February ouster of HDP’s imprisoned co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, Aydogan is the second pro-Kurdish MP who loses her lawmaker status in the Turkish Parliament where the party now has 57 seats.

Other HDP MPs protested the decision by hitting on the tables and later staging a walkout as a motion by the Prime Ministry informing of Aydogan’s removal was read during a parliamentary session, said Kurdistan24’s Ankara bureau.

The Turkish Constitution’s 76th and 84th articles stipulate crimes that block and remove one’s membership in the Parliament.

Authorities released Aydogan late last month despite a January prison sentence of four years, eight months for “disseminating terrorist propaganda.”

According to the court that sentenced her, the crimes Aydogan committed were attendance in at least five protests and the funeral of a fallen Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighter.

Earlier this month, authorities issued another arrest warrant for her.

The term of imprisonment for Aydogan was the first conviction of a sitting member of parliament in decades in Turkey.

An ethnic Turk, born in the northwestern city of Bursa, Aydogan was elected a representative for the Kurdish Diyarbakir Province in November 2015 general elections.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany