HDP: Rudaw claim about fleeing MPs designed to thicken darkness in Turkey

“The temporary amendment on the Constitution, under the guise of lifting immunities, is a blow to Turkish democracy and is leading the country onto a dark future. The said fabricated reports about our MPs are aimed at further thickening the clouds looming over the country instead of bringing light into the darkness,” the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said in a written statement on May 20.

HDP deputies Faysal Sarıyıldız and Tuğba Hezer Öztürk have fled Turkey “for good,” Kurdish news portal Rudaw, affiliated with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), reported late on May 19, citing an anonymous source which it said was from the HDP.

The anonymous source said Sarıyıldız and Hezer proceeded to Europe “for good” due to the possibility of being detained, Rudaw reported.

“As of today, deliberate, unethical, fabricated news appeared in several media organs about Faysal Sarıyıldız, our Şırnak MP, and Tuğba Hezer Öztürk, our Van MP. Mr. Sarıyıldız and Mrs. Hezer Öztürk were commissioned by our party and have been in European countries for some time. They are tasked with sharing information on massacres and rights violations in Cizre,” the HDP statement said, referring to the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak, which has been left devastated by ongoing clashes between Turkey’s security forces and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.

“Their work commissioned by our party is obviously within the party’s knowledge and is a part of our regular schedule for our MPs. Moreover, the fabricated reports reiterate the officially falsified slander of ‘gun-toting’ for Mr. Sarıyıldız. Information and documents on the issue have been previously shared with the public on numerous occasions by the HDP,” said the statement jointly signed by Çağlar Demirel and İdris Baluken, the deputy parliamentary co-chairs of the party.

In July 2015, a summary of proceedings against Sarıyıldız was referred to parliament in order to provide legal ground to launch an investigation against him due to allegations of “supplying weapons to terrorist groups.” 

“The indictment of our deputies are raised and submitted to the Parliament purely because of our political endeavor to democratize Turkey and build a libertarian country. We would like to reiterate what we have already publicly stated many times: the said political endeavors are a badge of honor for our deputies,” Demirel and Baluken said.

“We publicly reiterate that fabricated news about our MPs does not reflect the truth and we will continue our struggle for democracy against all those that stand against it,” they said.