Turkey Parliament debates constitution with 11 HDP members jailed

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - On Monday, Turkey's Parliament began debating a package of constitutional amendments aimed at empowering President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while 11 opposition members remain in jail.

In a letter to the Parliament's Presidency, the imprisoned co-leader of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas called the convention of the Parliament without him and his ten other colleagues "controversial, illegitimate and illegal."

Demirtas said he and his colleagues in jail were "political hostages" whose right to express themselves and vote were physically usurped, according to the HDP website that shared the letter from a prison in the northwestern city of Edirne.

As lawmakers started discussing the bill, scores of protestors including MPs from the main secularist opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) opposing Erdogan gathered outside the Parliament.

Turkish police cracked down on the protestors, using pepper spray, pressurized water, dogs, and brute forces, said Kurdistan24 Ankara Bureau.

The package containing 18 articles passed a month ago in a parliamentary commission dominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Initially, there were 21 articles proposed in the package.

Speaking to the Parliament, HDP lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder said debating a constitutional change extending powers of the president while several lawmakers are in prison was unconstitutional.

Other HDP MPs live-streamed Onder's speech online as the state TV tasked with parliamentary broadcast did not air.

A referendum will take place in May once the package is passed by the Parliament as expected in about a fortnight, according to Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli.

Editing by Ava Homa