The new Turkey |
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23-Jan-2019 |
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HDP Diyarbakır deputy Baluken was detained on Nov. 4, 2016. He was released on Jan. 30, 2017. However, upon an appeal against his release, he was re-jailed on Feb. 17, 2018. The regional court in Gaziantep approved the prison sentence given by a local court to Baluken, who has also been jailed pending trial for 18 months for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization.” The HDP is the second-largest opposition party in the Turkish Parliament. The HDP’s former co-chairs, Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, at least 5,000 members of the HDP, including 80 mayors have been detained on charges of “making terrorist propaganda” and “being a member of a terrorist organization.” Demirtaş was presented as the HDP’s presidential candidate for the upcoming elections to be held on July 24 and the Supreme Board of Elections (YSK) officially approved his candidacy in an announcement on May 13. A Turkish court rejected an appeal on May 21 for the release of Demirtaş, the party said, a month before snap parliamentary and presidential elections. Demirtaş, who is a former human rights lawyer, is one of Turkey’s best-known politicians, winning votes beyond his core Kurdish constituency in 2015 elections. Prosecutors allege he and hundreds of other detained HDP members have ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).* 4/1/2018 - HDP lawmaker given more than 16 years prison sentenceA Turkish court has handed down a long sentence to a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on terror charges. A court in Diyarbakir on Thursday sentenced Idris Baluken to 16 years and 8 months for "being a member of an armed terrorist organization," "violating the demonstration law," and "propagating for a terrorist organization," according to Turkish media outlet Haber Turk. Prosecutors are also demanding 47 years on various other charges denied by the MP. Baluken, 41, was jailed in early November 2016 when Turkish officials arrested eight high-ranking HDP politicians after the parliament voted earlier in the year to lift parliamentary immunity from a select group of MPs, many of whom have been accused by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the president of having ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). HDP has condemned the "unlawful detentions" of its MPs as politically motivated. "The process is not a judicial one, it is political through and through. The parliamentary immunity of our MPs has been lifted in breach both of the Constitution and international democratic conventions," the party stated at the time of their arrests. According to HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir, around 10,000 HDP supporters including mayors and city officials associated with the party have been arrested following the loss of immunity and the failed coup of last summer. Some of the detainees have been subsequently released. The party has also lost its two co-chairs, who have both been arrested. HDP chose Serpil Kemalbay as its new co-leader in place of Figen Yuksekdag whose party membership was revoked by the country's supreme court in 2017. Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP party in Turkey, has announced he will not run for re-election to the leadership position. "I would like it to be known in advance that I will not stand as a candidate for co-chair" at HDP's party congress scheduled for February 11, Demirtas confirmed in a statement written from jail and published by his party on Thursday. He said he made the decision so that HDP can "meet the new period of political struggle more powerfully." Demirtas, 44, is facing the possibility of a decades-long prison term on terror charges.
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Another HDP lawmaker from Van, Nadir Yıldırım, was detained on Jan. 30 while he was present at the hearing of HDP Diyarbakır lawmaker İdris Baluken at the Diyarbakır 8th Court of Serious Crimes. Yıldırım, who was the subject of a subpoena, was released after his testimony was taken. |
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