HDP to submit request to have their immunity removed in defiant stance against the interim government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who have accused party of maintaining ties with the armed and outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
In response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urging the parliament to strip politicians with links to “terrorist groups” of their immunity from prosecution, implying the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), HDP Co-Chair Demirtaş took to the cameras on Tuesday, vowing to take up Erdoğan on his word.
“If you are talking about immunity, we, together with our 80 parliamentarians, will submit a request to the parliament to have our immunity lifted. If you are not afraid let’s all together lift our immunities? Are you up for it?” stated the HDP co-chair directly addressing Erdoğan.
Erdoğan’s comments regarding the HDP had come days after the Turkish air force bombed camps in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey has so far detained over 1,000 suspects in counter-terror raids, the PKK, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the leftist the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C), but has received criticism from the Kurdish politicians for not being sincere in its efforts against ISIL.
Demirtaş accuses Erdoğan of trying to wreak havoc to stir the country into an early election to have the interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party) win majority once again by eliminating the HDP.
“No matter what happens we will not cease our language of peace. They will attack us but we shall not fall into the trap. The path to their single party rule passes through the elimination of the HDP.”
Report July 28, 2015 | BGNNews.com | Istanbul