Prominent Kurdish politician Leyla Zana faces ouster from Turkey Parliament

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s Parliamentary Speakership on Thursday sent a file on the leading Kurdish politician and Sakharov Laureate Leyla Zana to a subcommittee, paving the way for her expulsion from the National Assembly.

The file containing accusations against Zana, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), stipulated dropping her lawmaker status on the grounds of lack of attendance at parliamentary sessions.

Zana was barred from executing her legislative powers since her election in November 2015 due to her slightly changing the lawmakers’ oath for taking office during the Parliament’s opening ceremony then.

Her alteration of the phrase “the Turkish nation” to “the nation of Turkey” in the lawmakers’ oath led to the Speaker barring her from the legislative process.

If the file against her is proceeded with, Zana, a representative for the Agri Province, will become the third pro-Kurdish MP kicked out of the Turkish Parliament.

Despite accusations of membership in a “terror group,” a court in Diyarbakir acquitted her of any crime a fortnight ago.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government views the Kurdish political movement a front for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK has been waging a guerrilla warfare against the Turkish troops over state oppression of Kurdish rights.

Previously, the Parliament expelled two HDP lawmakers (the party’s former co-leader Figen Yuksekdag and Nursel Aydogan) following court convictions of them.

Two other MPs, Tugba Hezer of the Van Province and Faysal Sariyildiz of the Sirnak Province, have already been under investigation and threat of expulsion.

An ongoing government crackdown on the Kurdish opposition has seen over 7,000 politicians arrested, including the HDP’s charismatic Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and a dozen other lawmakers.

Zana became a powerful symbol of national consciousness for the Kurds in Turkey when she took the MP oath in the Kurdish language in 1991, the year she became the first female Kurdish lawmaker making it to the Parliament.

She is now, for the second time, about to lose the seat she won in elections.

Back in 1994, a court sentenced her to 15 years of incarceration for “treason and membership in the PKK.”

The conviction was handed out because of a speech she gave on Kurdish rights during a visit to the United States, leading to her subsequent ouster from the legislative branch.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany