Joint Committee Demands Zana Be Relieved of MP Duties
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The Joint Committee consisting of members of the Parliamentary Commissions on Constitution and Justice has demanded that Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı MP Leyla Zana be relieved of her MP duties.
The demand will be put to a vote in the general meeting of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). Including its Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ, five MPs of HDP have been relieved of their MP duties so far.
Replaced "Turkish Nation" by "Nation of Turkey" in parliamentary oath
HDP MP Beştaş regarding the issue said that the reason behind the commission's demand was not Zana's absence as argued by the commission, but the expression of "the Nation of Turkey" she insisted to use instead of the "Turkish Nation".
Before taking her parliamentary oath in November 17, 2015, HDP MP Leyla Zana had put the expression "Bi Hevîya Aşîtî Kî Bi Rûmet Û Mayînde (With a hope of honourable and lasting peace)" before her oath and had replaced the expression "Turkish Nation" by the "Nation of Turkey".
Zana's oath had therefore not been accepted and she had not complied with the request of Deniz Baykal; Spokesperson of the Temporary Parliament; to repeat the oath.
Following this, Zana had remarked: "Certains things have to change, I will definitely not repeat my oath".
A joint committee was established to decide on the case of Zana, who faced being deprived of her MP duties for not taking an oath and therefore not attending the general meetings of the Parliament.
The Joint Committee that got together today (November 21) reached the decision to request that Zana be relieved of her MP duties on the grounds, that she missed 212 legislative sessions in a row between October 1, 2016 - April 30, 2017.
Request will be put to vote in General Assembly
The request will be to vote in the general meeting of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).
An absolute majority of 276 votes will be necessary to relieve Zana of her MP duties in the general meeting.
5 HDP MPs relieved of duties
Until today, five HDP MPs, namely the Party's Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ, MPs Nursel Aydoğan, Faysal Sarıyıldız, Tuğba Hezer Öztürk and Besime Konca have been relieved of their MP duties.
About Leyla Zana
Born 3 May 1961 in Silvan district in the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey.
Zana entered the Parliament as Social Democratic Populist Party's Diyarbakır MP following an election campaign which saw a huge support from the women in the southeastern region in general elections in 1991.
On November 6, 1991, she was protested for ending her oath in Kurdish in the oath-taking ceremony of Grand National Assembly of Turkey's (TBMM) 19th legislative year.
On March 2, 1994, parliamentary immunities of Zana, Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak, Orhan Doğan, Hatip Dicle, Ahmet Türk, Sırrı Sakık and Mahmut Alınak were lifted because of a speech Zana delivered in the US. They all were detained in the following day.
She was sent to prison with her group fellows Dicle, Sadak, and Orhan on March 17, 1994. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison on December 8, 1994 on charge of "being a member of an illegal organization".
She was released from Ankara Central Closed Prison on June 8, 2004.
She was re-elected in the 12 June 2011 General Election and entered the Parliament as the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Deputy from Diyarbakır. (PT/DG)