Pro-Kurdish HDP leader kicked out of Turkish parliament
In Turkey’s latest salvo against the pro-Kurdish bloc, the parliament has expelled Peoples’ Democratic Party co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, who remains in jail with fellow leader Selahattin Demirtas and at least nine other HDP deputies while the ruling party continues its legal assaults ahead of the presidential referendum.
Turkey’s beleaguered pro-Kurdish bloc was dealt a further blow Feb. 21 when the parliament stripped its imprisoned co-leader of her seat. An appeals court upheld Figen Yuksekdag's conviction of spreading terrorist propaganda.
Yuksekdag and fellow co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas remain in jail together with at least nine other HDP deputies — their numbers keep fluctuating — on a wide array of often sketchily constructed terror charges. Yuksekdag lost her seat because she attended the funeral of a left-wing militant deemed to be a terrorist.
