The Turkish parliament has approved a controversial bill that will strip MPs of their immunity from prosecution.<\/p>\n
Pro-Kurdish lawmakers say this is essentially a move to expel opposition members from parliament.<\/p>\n
The measure is seen as targeting the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as well as the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).<\/p>\n
Turkey has led an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), accused of being a terror group.<\/p>\n
A ceasefire ended weeks after elections in June 2015. The renewed conflict has claimed hundreds of lives on both sides, particularly in the south-east.<\/p>\n
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the HDP of being the PKK’s political arm, and has called for pro-Kurdish MPs to face terrorism charges.<\/p>\n
This vote could be a first step towards making that happen.<\/p>\n
Calling the move “historic” as lawmakers voted, Mr Erdogan told a crowd in his hometown of Rize: “My people do not want to see guilty lawmakers in this parliament.”<\/p>\n
‘Blow to people’s will’<\/strong><\/p>\n Critics also say the move aims to strengthen the ruling AK Party and consolidate support in the assembly for the executive presidential system Mr Erdogan wants to implement.<\/p>\n HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas said the move was a blow against the people’s will and could not be accepted as democratic.<\/p>\n He said the party would challenge the decision at Turkey’s top court.<\/p>\n The pro-Kurdish HDP party says the government is using trumped-up charges to push their party out of parliament and allow President Erdogan to change the constitution and boost his own powers.<\/p>\n The government rejects that claim, saying MPs should be accountable before the law. In a country with faith in its democracy and judicial independence, that would be the accepted view.<\/p>\n But in Turkey there are deep misgivings about both and Mr Erdogan is seen by critics as increasingly authoritarian – hence the concerns.<\/p>\n If several HDP MPs are arrested, there are fears it could spark worse violence in Kurdish areas, where people could feel deprived of a voice in parliament.<\/p>\n And so this is a dangerous moment for Turkey and a test of how far Mr Erdogan is willing to go to secure his position.<\/p>\n The bill was backed by 376 MPs in the 550-seat legislature, which means it will become law directly without being put to a referendum.<\/p>\n It now needs to be ratified by the president.<\/p>\n Some 138 lawmakers, the vast majority from the two opposition parties, could be at risk of prosecution.<\/p>\n Violent scuffles marred parliamentary debates this month, with frustrated lawmakers exchanging fisticuffs and kicks.<\/p>\n Friday’s vote was not without incident as CHP lawmakers walked out in protest.<\/p>\n Pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party MPs react after Turkey’s parliament approved a bill to lift lawmakers’ immunity from prosecutionImage copyrightREUTERS<\/p>\n German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said she would raise concerns over the state of democracy in Turkey when she met Mr Erdogan next week.<\/p>\n Mrs Merkel, who has led the push to conclude a migrant deal with Ankara, has been criticised by human rights groups for turning a blind eye to violations in Turkey in return for co-operation.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Turkish parliament has approved a controversial bill that will strip MPs of their immunity from prosecution. Pro-Kurdish lawmakers say this is essentially a move to expel opposition members from parliament. The measure is seen as targeting the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as well as the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Turkey has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":215882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/215882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}