PM ready to lift BDP deputies’ immunity

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Daily News Photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday reiterated his will to support an annulment of immunities of deputies of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) when the issue comes to the agenda of Parliament.

“In case of official notices coming to the Parliament, of those particularly related to terror, we are planning to make an extraordinary decision, because the responsibilities of deputies are not like the responsibilities of ordinary citizens. They should be more careful,” Erdoğan said, ahead of his departure for an official visit to Spain, after he was reminded of reports suggesting that BDP Van deputy Özdal Üçer recently called on people in his electoral district “to get armed.”Earlier on Monday, a statement from BDP headquarters denied the reports, calling them as part of a “psychological war.”

“Calling on [people] to get armed does not befit at all to those who are under the roof the of Parliament,” Erdoğan said, while underlining that the practice for those who were acting like “an extension of the separatist organization” should be different, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The government and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have already declared that they will vote to lift the immunity of nine BDP deputies, including BDP co-chair Gültan Kışanak, if a summary of proceedings is introduced in Parliament.