MHP leader welcomes dismissal of opposition MPs from the parliament 

ANKARA

The dismissal of three opposition lawmakers is “is an obligatory requirement of the justice and democracy ethics,” leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli said on June 8. 

“Everyone is equal before the law. Nobody has the privilege or freedom to commit a crime,” Bahçeli said in a written statement. 

“Parliament cannot be a place of shelter for criminals who aid and abet terrorism,” he added. 

He stated that it was the leader of Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu that first voiced to lift the immunities of the deputies. 

“It is this person who said, ‘Let’s account before the independent judiciary’,” Bahçeli added.

Enis Berberoğlu from the CHP and Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were stripped of their lawmaker status last week after a final verdict from the Supreme Court of Appeals over their cases were read at the General Assembly.  

All three were arrested after they were revoked their seats in parliament, but Berberoğlu was released shortly after from an open prison due to risks from the coronavirus. 

Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017 on espionage charges for providing daily Cumhuriyet with a video purporting to show Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucking weapons into Syria.

In February, Güven was accused of “conducting terror activities” following her statements and social media posts on Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” against the YPG in northwestern Syria. 

Farisoğulları was sentenced to nine years in prison in the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) case.