HDP Co-Chair Sancar says opposition has a 'historic duty to fight against fascism'
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Photo: HDP
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Stripped of MP status yesterday (March 17) Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu hasn't left the parliament in protest of the decision.
Staging a sit-in protest at the parliament's general assembly for about three-and-a-half hours, HDP deputies then went to the party's group room.
Gergerlioğlu said he would wait there until the Constitutional Court gives its ruling on his application against his prison sentence.
Gergerlioğlu was stripped of MP status yesterday after the Court of Cassation upheld his prison sentence because of a Twitter post.
Making a statement at the party's room last night, HDP Co-Chair Mithat Sancar said, "The coup operation continues by deepening. Two moves on the same day... All these have one meaning: Completely crushing democracy in Turkey and destroying hopes for the future."
Hours after Gergerlioğlu's expulsion, the Court of Cassation's chief public prosecutor filed an indictment seeking the closure of the HDP.
"Although it seems that this operation is against the HDP, the HDP is not the single target," said Sancar. "It's to bring down the struggle for democracy in Turkey, to abolish democratic politics. It's to institutionalize fascism and establish it completely."
Because of that, Sancar said, the opposition has a "historic responsibility" to fight in solidarity with the HDP against fascism.
The crackdown on the HDPAfter the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ended the "resolution process" to the Kurdish question in mid-2015, the HDP has faced a government crackdown on the ground of its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Dozens of politicians of the party, including its former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, have been behind bars since 2016. The Ministry of Interior has dismissed 48 of the 65 HDP mayors in predominantly Kurdish regions since the 2019 local elections, citing "terror" investigations and cases against them. More than 100 HDP members, including the party's co-chair Pervin Buldan and MPs, are facing aggravated life sentences in a case concerning the 2014 Kobanê protests in the region. A total of 25 HDP deputies currently face losing legislative immunity over various cases against them. |
(EKN/VK)