‘We are concerned that parliament’s third party will actually be closed’

The Union for Democracy, Peace Block, Citizen Initiative and Dialogue Group have issued a joint press statement in connection with the HDP’s remanded Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ being stripped of her MP status. It was said in the statement, ‘Unlawful measures are giving rise to the concern that parliament’s third party will actually be closed.’
Ayşe Erzan, Levent Tüzel, Oya Baydar and Zülfü Livaneli participated as speakers at the well-attended press conference held at Taksim Point Hotel, with HDP MP Filiz Kerestecioğlu, Hasip Kaplan, Akın Birdal, Necmiye Alpay, Gençay Gürsoy and Levent Tüzel numbering among those present.
It was stated in the joint statement read by Zülfü Livaneli that the third largest party in parliament, the HDP, was the political body most affected by unlawful measures.
The following lines were included in the press statement made at the end of the meeting:
‘We are embarking, under a state of emergency, on a referendum that will determine Turkey’s future, the legal order and the future of democracy. One after another, steps are being taken that will compromise the legitimacy of the referendum being held in an environment in which freedom of expression has been restricted to a large extent under decrees with the force of law and there is an attempt to silence opposing voices.
The People’s Democracy Party (HDP), ranking as the third party in the Turkish National Assembly and having millions of voters, is being brought to a state in which it cannot function through widespread detentions and arrests extending as far as its co-chairs, MPs and members and through pressure in regions in which HDP voters are particularly concentrated.
Finally, the stripping of HDP Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ’s MP status – in the face of imperative provisions of the Constitution – and unlawful measures are giving rise to the concern that parliament’s third party will actually be closed. We consider that every person and organisation that defends the democratic rule of law, irrespective of the party and the political line it stands by, must come out in support of democracy to enable the legal political party of the HDP to freely further its activities and participate in the referendum with equal rights.’