Parliament to pay 71,000 Turkish Liras in compensation to former suspended MP Merve Kavakçı 

ANKARA

Turkey’s Parliamentary Speaker’s Office has decided to pay 71,000 Turkish Liras ($20,000) in compensation to former deputy Merve Kavakçı, who was recently appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, over her ban from parliament in 1999, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Aug. 16.

Kavakçı was banned from parliament after she joining an oath ceremony at parliament wearing a headscarf following her election as a lawmaker from now defunct Virtue Party (FP). She also lost her Turkish citizenship after it was revealed that she acquired U.S. citizenship without permission and without telling the necessary authorities before she ran for elections. 

Her citizenship was recently given back after a decision from the Council of Ministers, published in the Official Gazette on July 3. 
Upon her reinstatement application, the speaker’s office will pay compensation to Kavakçı amounting to her lawmaker’s salary between the date she was stripped of her parliamentary status, May 16, 1999, and the date when the party was shut down, June 22, 2001.

The parliamentary office had earlier requested an official opinion from the legal consulatancy department and the Court of Accounts regarding the payment process.

The Court of Accounts had stated that Kavakçı could be paid a lawmakers’ salary of the time during her two-year-service, but it noted that she could not be given 18 years of interest payments.

It has also been reported that parliament might pay millions of liras to Kavakçı if she presents her health expenditures to date. According to the law, all deputies’ health expenditures are provided by parliament.

In addition, Kavakçı could now be formally retired from the deputyship and could receive health services granted to all former lawmakers, along with her family. She can also use the VIP halls and obtain an entrance card to parliament, as well as a former deputy card. 

Kavakçı was given a diplomatic passport after recently being appointed as Turkey’s new ambassador to Malaysia.