Erdogan calls for Kurdish politicians’ trial

ANKARA, Turkey (Agencies, K24) – President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on prosecutors to not allow pro-Kurdish MPs "misuse" the legislative immunity.

Erdogan said that Kurdish MPs and party leaders should be held accountable for "acting as members of the terror organization [PKK]," reported Turkish Dogan News Agency, on Wednesday.

Turkish President spoke in a meeting with the mukhtars (heads of villages and neighborhoods) from across Turkey, in the presidential palace in Ankara.

Erdogan stated that the Interior Ministry should take action against mayors whom he accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). "I know the jurisdiction and the ministry have already acted," he said.

"They are being tried now. The number of those tried will increase even more. There is a need to quickly eliminate those who [support the PKK]," Erdogan added.

Recently Turkish prosecutors launched probes into remarks on autonomy by several top Kurdish politicians, among them the co-chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, Figen Yuksekdag, and the mayor of the metropolitan province of Diyarbakir, Gultan Kisanak.

Also this week the mayor of the city of Van, Bekir Kaya, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a separate case related to the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) operations launched three years ago.

The Turkish President also denied that there was a “Kurdish problem” in Turkey and further stated, "it is a terror issue; nobody should try to deceive us."

The Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, also harshly slammed the demands for Kurdish autonomy, on the same day, in Ankara. He declared that municipalities held by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions' Party (DBP) were aiding the PKK, reported a K24 correspondent in Ankara.

At least two mayors of smaller towns in Mus and Van Provinces have been arrested since last week.

Davutoglu claimed that the municipalities of the Kurdish cities of Mardin, Diyarbakir, and Van were spending their budget on digging trenches and building barricades.

"The terrorists' picks and excavators are provided by them [the mayors]. They will be held accountable for this treachery," he told a large audience at the municipality of Ankara.

Meanwhile, the HDP co-chair Demirtas responded to Erdogan's call for trials of his party's politicians and said that "there was no law or constitution in Turkey," reported the Kurdish Firat News Agency.

He claimed Erdogan was giving orders to the Parliament and judiciary.

"Let's strip us of immunity, but yours too should be removed. You are the ones who need it, not us,” Demirtas addressed the Turkish President.

The HDP leader was giving a speech at a public demonstration organized on Thursday by his party's local branch in the city of Van to protest the weeks-long curfews imposed on several Kurdish towns.

(Adnan Gerger contributed to this report from Ankara)