HDP MP stripped of her status as parliamentarian

ANKARA

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Semra Güzel has been stripped of her status as a member of parliament in a parliamentary vote on the grounds that she failed to attend parliament for a long time.

Some 330 lawmakers voted in favor of her dismissal from the Parliament on Dec. 22. Some 42 deputies voted against.

The parliament had already lifted Güzel’s immunity on March 1 in a bid to pave the way for a legal prosecution against her after her pictures with a PKK terrorist emerged.

PKK terrorist Volkan Bora was killed in an operation in April 2017 in the southeastern province of Mardin. As part of an investigation, security forces examined Bora’s cellular phone and found pictures taken in a PKK camp in northern Iraq, which showed Bora and Güzel together.

She was detained on Sept. 2 while travelling with a fake passport in northwestern Türkiye as she did not appear before the prosecutor who wanted her testimony after it was found out that she was in a relationship with a PKK terrorist.

Güzel is accused of supporting terrorism and being a member of a terror organization. She rejects all these claims. With Güzel’s dismissal from the Parliament, the HDP now has 55 deputies.