Opposition HDP to meet with Constitutional Court head

ANKARA

AA photo

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has scheduled a meeting with the head of the Constitutional Court, Zühtü Arslan, daily Cumhuriyet has said.

The meeting is slated take place next week, with party deputies expected to focus on the issue of its arrested deputies, the daily said. 

Party deputies have been issuing weekly press statements in front of the top court building and slamming its decision not to order the release of jailed co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and other deputies. 

The party was able to set up an appointment only after issuing a statement that “all the HDP deputies” would attend the 55th anniversary of the foundation of the Constitutional Court, which took place on April 25 in Ankara, the newspaper said. 

HDP deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder notified the top court that “all HDP deputies who are not yet arrested will attend the Constitutional Court’s ceremony,” after which officials told them such a case was not possible due to the “problem of enough seats.” 

Önder, however, insisted that all party deputies would attend, saying, “We will stand, it is not a must for us to sit down.” 

After this reported phone conversation, Arslan called Önder himself and arranged the meeting. 

After the telephone diplomacy, only two people from the party, HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir and central executive member Pınar Akdemir, attended the ceremony at which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman were also present.