Turkey’s HDP opposition leader may face prosecution
The leader of the Turkish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas may face prosecution on charges of insulting Turkey’s president and inciting violence in the country.
On Wednesday, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir submitted a petition to Turkey’s Justice Ministry, demanding that Demirtas be taken to court over what was called offending Recep Tayyip Erdogan and spreading terror propaganda.
The prosecutor’s office, however, did not explain which of Demirtas’ words or actions were deemed as criminal.
The HDP leader has immunity as a member of the Turkish parliament, and thus the legislative body is required to vote on any possible investigation or prosecution in case the Turkish judiciary decides to sue him.
The petition came hours after Demirtas, a member of Turkey’s Kurdish community, warned the government in Ankara of the potential breakout of a civil war in the country, saying it is the people’s right to respond to those who attempt to burn their homes, businesses, and party buildings with “proportional” force.
“Everyone should use proportional means to defend themselves,” he said during a press conference in Diyarbakir, adding, “You have got to force them to regret what they do.”
Demirtas made the remarks following a night of nationalist protests in the capital, Ankara, and elsewhere, during which several HDP offices and shops belonging to Kurds were set on fire. The supporters of Erdogan also attacked the office of the country’s leading newspaper Hurriyet Daily News in Istanbul.
Turkish nationalists accuse the HDP of being the political wing of the militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has recently been engaged in deadly clashes with the country’s army.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
There has been renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces since July when Turkey began launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on July 20.
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