The new Turkey
Alican Önlü
Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party parliament deputie

A prosecutor’s office in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara has filed requests to lift the parliamentary immunity of 15 opposition deputies, Turkish news site Diken said on Friday, citing a report from the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency.

The prosecutor wishes to take press charges on 12 deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for allegedly creating propaganda for terrorists, and three from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has piled constant pressure on the HDP since it became the first pro-Kurdish party to win enough votes to break the country’s 10 per cent electoral threshold in the June 2015 elections.

Shortly after the elections, a peace process broke down between the AKP and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist-designated armed group that has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey since the 1980s.

The charges against the 12 HDP deputies are related to statements made criticising Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch, a military assault launched in January this year against Syrian-Kurdish groups linked to the PKK in northwest Syria. They also refer to political statements made on International Women’s Day on March 8.

Dozens of high-profile HDP politicians and activists have faced legal action since 2015 due to their alleged links to the PKK, including two of the party’s former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

The CHP politicians have been accused of “insulting the president,” a crime with a maximum four-year prison sentence according to the Turkish constitution, which does not clearly define what constitutes an insult. Erdoğan has launched around 2,000 legal cases against Turkish citizens, including schoolchildren, for alleged insults.

The Turkish parliament decided to make it possible to lift politicians’ parliamentary immunity in a controversial vote in May 2016.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu may have come to regret backing the vote, which has seen several of his party’s deputies and prominent figures sentenced, including Istanbul deputy Enis Berberoğlu.

The HDP politicians facing the latest round of legal problems are Ayhan Bilgen, Ayşe Acar Başaran, Alican Önlü, Berdan Öztürk, Bedia Özgökçe Ertan, Feleknas Uca, Filiz Keresteci, Kemal Bülbül, Meral Danış Beştaş, İmam Taşçıer, Nimetullah Erdoğmuş and Pervin Buldan.

On the CHP side, Çetin Osman Budak, Erdin Bircan and Aykut Erdoğdu face charges. Source

10 April 2018

A Turkish appeals court has sentenced pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Burcu Çelik Özkan to prison for alleged terrorism propaganda, according to a report by the pro-Kurdish Mesopotamia news agency.

Özkan was sentenced to seven years, three months and 10 days on charges of disseminating propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She had previously been given six years for the same offense by a lower court, but the sentence was dropped and the case retried on appeal.

“You will get the hell out of this place,” Özkan was accused in an indictment of having said to security personnel during the July 7, 2015 general election campaign. “We know well how to turn that Kalashnikov you are pointing at us back towards you.”

Prosecutors also said Özkan attended the funerals of PKK militants Berjin Demirkaya and Özgür Akınel and gave a eulogy at the funeral that constituted terrorist propaganda, charges she denied. “There is no concrete evidence that I attended the funeral,” Özkan said.

She also gave a different account of her actions in 2015 to that of the prosecution, saying that she had been opposing the presence of security forces at the ballot box intended to intimidate voters. “On July 7, 2015 I went to the towns of Sungu and Karaağaç with other candidate colleagues to see electoral and ballot box security in the field. There were security guards waiting at the ballot boxes with Kalashnikovs in Karaağaç,” Özkan said.

“We lodged our objections to them. We faced violence, insults and swearing from the village guards. They hit my hand with a gun.”

The court gave her five years for “threats making use of a terror organization’s power to frighten,” one year, three months for “terrorist organization propaganda” and one year, 10 days for “committing a crime in the name of a terrorist organization while not being a member of that organization.”

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday filed motions against eight HDP deputies for disseminating “terrorist propaganda,” demanding the removal of their immunity from prosecution, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.

According to the report, HDP deputies Osman Baydemir, Alican Önlü, Feleknas Uca, Sibel Yiğitalp, Nadir Yıldırım, Dilek Öcalan, Mizgin Irgat and Garo Paylan also were accused of “humiliating the Turkish nation, the Turkish state, government, military and police,” “violating the Political Parties Law” and “Insulting the president [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan].”

The prosecutor sent motions to the Justice Ministry to forward to the presidency of the Parliament for removal of the deputies’ immunity.

The prosecutor’s office also asked the Justice Ministry for permission to initiate an investigation into HDP deputies Baydemir and Botan for statements they made about a Turkish military operation and “humiliating the Turkish nation, military and police.”

The government’s crackdown on the Kurdish political movement began in late 2016 with the arrest of high-profile politicians, including the party’s then co-chairs, Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, which led to the detention of at least 5,000 members of the HDP, including 80 mayors. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast. Source

20 Feb. 2018

Seven members of parliament from Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have been hit with a list of criminal indictments which includes terror charges, the Turkish news site Diken reports.

The charges include “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation”, “publicly insulting the Turkish nation, military and security forces”, “praising crime and criminals”, and “insulting the president”.

The HDP has been under tremendous pressure since it became the first predominantly Kurdish political party to break the ten percent electoral threshold and enter Turkey’s parliament in June 2015, narrowly defending its presence in parliament during the snap elections later that year.

A resurgence of violence between Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in July that year led to a crackdown on HDP politicians, many of whom are accused by the government of being linked to the PKK, which has a long history of conflict with Turkish armed forces since it started an insurgency in the 1980s.

The indictment against the seven MPs accuses them of praising the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and attending the funerals of PKK members, besides the terrorism propaganda charge.

The indicted HDP deputies are Ziya Pir, Leyla Birlik, Nadir Yıldırım, Feleknas Uca, Ahmet Yıldırım, Ertuğrul Kürkçü and Alican Önlü. Source

The Turkish parliament voted to lift immunities from prosecution from members of parliament in May 2016, leading to the arrest of a number of them, including former party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

5 Sep. 2016

Subpoenas were issued for eight lawmakers from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) over the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) case in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Sept. 5. HDP group deputy chairman Çağlar Demirel was among the ones that a subpoena was issued for by the Diyarbakır Second Heavy Penal Court, Anadolu Agency reported.

The issuance of subpoenas came after the law regarding the lifting of legislative immunities of lawmakers was published in the Official Gazette.

The trial for eight lawmakers started on Sept. 5, as the lawyers of the deputies were present in the court room. The lawmakers, Osman Baydemir, Dirayet Taşdemir, Demirel, Selma Irmak, Ahmet Yıldırım, Besime Konca, Alican Önlü and Nadir Yıldırım, didn’t participate in the hearing, as the court issued a subpoena for the next hearing. 

Arrest warrants had been issued for 21 people in the same case, including HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s brother, Nurettin Demirtaş.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ commented on the health condition of jailed outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan. 

“The issue of Abdullah Öcalan has been abused by the terrorist organization continuously and inaccurate information has been passed to the public all the time. They spread wrong information regarding Öcalan’s health and security in order to mobilize people to use it for their own purposes. I should tell you very clearly that there is no problem on Abdullah Öcalan’s security,” Bozdağ said, adding that security measures at İmralı Island Prison, where Öcalan is held, were of the highest level. 

“The security precautions in the prison have been reexamined after July 15,” he also said, referring to the July 15 failed coup attempt. 

Saying that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) talked to Öcalan in İmralı recently, Bozdağ noted that “no one should believe in dark propaganda.” 

“Controls have been made regularly. There is no issue regarding his health,” he said. 

Elsewhere, a group of 50 people started hunger strike that they are conducting to receive news regarding Öcalan. HDP lawmakers were among the ones engaging in the strike, which will last until the group hears from the PKK leader via his lawyers, family members or a political delegation. Source