Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu: Turkey expels pro-Kurdish legislator, seeks to disband party
ANKARA: In the latest crackdown on Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition
party, Turkish authorities on Wednesday stripped a prominent legislator
and human rights advocate of his parliamentary seat and took a step
toward disbanding the entire party.
Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a
lawmaker from the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, was convicted over a
2016 social media post which the courts deemed to be terrorist
propaganda. An appeals court decision confirming the conviction was read
in parliament, leading to his automatic expulsion from the house. The
legislator protested the move and refused to leave parliament.
Meanwhile, an appeals court prosecutor filed a case with Turkey's
highest court, seeking the HDP's disbandment. The HDP is accused of
acting together with the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and
with PKK-affiliated organizations, to "disrupt and destroy (Turkey's)
indivisible integrity," according to a court statement.
The high
court needs to approve the indictment before the case against the HDP
can begin. Several of HDP's predecessors were closed down over the
decades for alleged links to Kurdish rebels, but were soon
re-established under different names.
An outspoken critic of the
human rights record of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government,
Gergerlioglu maintains that the trial against him was
politically-motivated and aimed to silence him. He says he was unjustly
stripped of his seat before the Constitutional Court had reviewed his
case and has vowed not to leave parliament until the high court issues
its decision.
The move to expel Gergerlioglu triggered a raucous
protest in the assembly hall, with HDP legislators banging on desks and
accusing Erdogan's ruling party of an assault on democracy.
"I came
here with the 90,000 votes of the people of (the northwestern province
of) Kocaeli," Gergeroglu said, addressing journalists watching the
proceeding.
"I am my party's legislator and I am not going anywhere," he said.
HDP legislators remained in the assembly hall in a show of solidarity.
The government accuses the HDP - the third largest party in Turkey's
parliament - of links to the PKK. Dozens of elected HDP lawmakers and
mayors, including former co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, as well as
thousands of members have been arrested in a crackdown on the party.
Erdogan's nationalist ally recently called for the party to be closed
down.
Two other HDP legislators similarly lost their seats in June.
With Gergerlioglu's expulsion, the HDP's seats in the 600-member
parliament dropped to 55.
Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central
Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch said earlier on
Wednesday that any move to strip Gergerlioglu of his seat "would look
like a reprisal by the Erdogan government for his brave and vocal stance
in support of thousands of victims of human rights violations."
"Gergerlioglu's conviction is a blatant violation of his right to free
speech and using it as a pretext to expel him from parliament would show
deep disdain for democratic norms and the right to political
association," he said.
The move against Gergerlioglu, a one-time
Erdogan supporter who joined the HDP out of disillusionment with the
Turkish leader's increasingly authoritarian style of government, came
weeks after Erdogan pledged a series of human rights reforms.
Gergerlioglu, the former head of an Islamist human rights association,
has exposed several human rights violations in Turkey, including alleged
illegal strip-searches of detainees by police.
He was convicted in
2018 and sentenced to two years and six months in prison for "spreading
terrorist propaganda" after he retweeted a news article about a call
for peace with the PKK and commented that its jailed leader, Abdullah
Ocalan, should be involved. Last month, an appeals court confirmed his
conviction.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the United States.
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