İYİ Party to support lifting of HDP deputies' parliamentary immunities

İYİ Party deputy chair Yavuz Ağıralioğlu has said that the party will support lifting the parliamentary immunities of HDP deputies. "We see the HDP problematic and under the shadow of terror," Ağıralioğlu said.

Thursday February 25 2021 10:52 am

Duvar English

Good (İYİ) Party deputy leader Yavuz Ağıralioğlu said that his party will support the lifting of the parliamentary immunities of nine Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputies.

"We see the HDP as problematic and under the shadow of terror. We see their discourse as problematic and don't see it appropriate for them to do politics under the roof of parliament," Ağıralioğlu said on Feb. 24.

"That's why we'll say 'yes,'" he said.

Ağıralioğlu was commenting on the summary of proceedings prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and sent to parliament on nine HDP deputies, including co-chair Pervin Buldan, as part of the renewed pressure on the pro-Kurdish party.

The summary of proceedings concerns the 2014 Kobane protests, during which thousands of people in the Kurdish-majority southeast flocked to the streets to protest the government's inaction in protecting Syrian Kurds near the border from ISIS. The protests that took place between Oct. 6 and 8 turned deadly as supporters of Turkish Hizbullah also took to the streets.

Prosecutors accuse the HDP of inciting protests, while the HDP says that they did everything they can, including contacting government officials, to stop the bloodshed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) often targets the HDP by claiming that it's the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

Scores of HDP members, including former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are currently imprisoned on charges related to the PKK.

The current summary of proceedings concern Buldan, HDP group deputy chairs Meral Danış Beştaş and Saruhan Oluç, deputies Garo Paylan, Hüda Kaya, Sezai Temelli, Pero Dündar, Fatma Kurtulan and Serpil Kemalbay. They will be discussed in parliament and the nine deputies' may end up losing their parliamentary immunities.

The İYİ Party, which was founded by dissidents of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) considers itself an opposition party and is in an alliance with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Its stance towards the HDP has always been the same as that of the government and the MHP.