Politics

Turkey launches probe against four Kurdish MPs

There are hundreds of legal investigations against almost all of the 59 HDP MPs who make up the third largest block at the Turkish Parliament.

Ari Khalidi 2016/10/25 14:59

kurdistan HDP PKK Turkey Kurds Bakur

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) - A Turkish public prosecutor office in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir launched a probe on Tuesday against four Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) members of parliament who represent the city at the Turkish Assembly.

The prosecutor's office accused MPs Sibel Yigitalp, Ziya Pir, and Feleknas Uca of "propagating for a terrorist organization" for having attended a public funeral at a Diyarbakir cemetery for four fallen Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, reported Kurdistan24 Diyarbakir bureau.

The four PKK fighters buried over the weekend in Diyarbakir were killed alongside 13 other comrades during a Turkish military operation on October 16 - 18 in the Kurdish province of Dersim (Tunceli).

MP Uca, an Ezidi Kurd who previously served as a member of the European Parliament for Germany between 1999 and 2009, was not available for a comment regarding the accusations against her when contacted by Kurdistan24 English.

Turkey and PKK have been locked in a three-decades-long conflict over Kurdish political and cultural rights that restarted in mid-2015 after the collapse of two years of peace negotiations and ceasefire.

There are hundreds of legal investigations against almost all of the 59 HDP MPs who make up the third largest block at the Turkish Parliament.

Last May, the Turkish Parliament passed a bill that stripped its members from immunity, a move disproportionately targeting the HDP.

The crimes Kurdish MPs are accused of vary from "propaganda for a terror group, supporting a separatist organization, and inciting enmity and discord among the population" to "insulting the President."

Turkish prosecutors have already called both the HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag for questioning over remarks regarding Kurdish self-rule in Turkey and Syria.

Demirtas, Yuksekdag, and other HDP MPs have so far refused to go to the prosecutors' offices, raising the question if Turkish authorities would take a step further by arresting them.

Editing by Ava Homa