The new Turkey
Ahmet Şık.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarian

16 May 2019:
Proposal to lift immunity of HDP deputies submitted to Parliament

A summary of proceedings of the deputies of the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was submitted to Parliament to lift their immunity in the face of their affiliation with the terrorist organization.

Presidency dossiers on the immunity of 21 deputies, including HDP co-chairpersons Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Saliha Sera Kadıgil were presented to the Turkish Parliamentary Speaker's Office.

Buldan along with HDP Ağrı deputy Berdan Öztürk and HDP Diyarbakır deputy Remziye Tosun have three dossiers while two dossiers were submitted for HDP's Istanbul deputy Ahmet Şık, Şırnak deputy Nuran İmir, Van deputy Murat Sarısaç and Diyarbakır deputies Musa Farisoğulları, Salihe Aydeniz and Dersim Dağ.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are suing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarian and investigative journalist Ahmet Şık for 100,000 liras ($20,500) over what they call “slander and insult” in his maiden speech to parliament, independent news site T24 said .

Şık has been held in two periods of extended pre-trial detention on dubious terrorism charges since the AKP took power in 2002.

In his speech, he accused the AKP of using the laws as its weapons and the judiciary as its hitmen and compared its orders to the judiciary to those of the junta following the 1980 coup. “You first target those who act against you with your media, then you get your trolls to lynch them, then you take them hostage with your judiciary,” Şık said. “Should the wave of warnings and fear you wish to release on those who refuse to get to their knees before you prove insufficient, you fill the streets with your militants.”

Midway through the speech, AKP parliamentarians leapt to their feet and a fight broke out. Şık was given a two-parliamentary-session ban as a result. Source