Turkish nation will call EU to account for support for terror, says Erdoğan

“I am calling on the EP from this meaningful gathering: Whom are you trying to give message to with flags of terrorist organizations that you hung on the walls of the European Parliament?” Erdoğan asked during an iftar dinner.

Earlier this week, reports in Turkish media covering Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s discussions at the EP were accompanied by photographs showing Demirtaş walking in the corridors of the European Parliament past a flag of the YPG.

“The Turkish nation will call the relevant persons to account for their acts when the right time comes. MPs, acting as if they were militants of the terrorist organization, carrying terrorists and weapons in their vehicles and putting their means at the disposal of terrorists will be held accountable for their acts before the court.

Files and summaries of proceedings have already started to be sent to courts,” Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan approved a bill June 7 that will lift lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, paving the way to lift the immunities of a score of lawmakers – most of them from the pro-Kurdish HDP. 

The related constitutional amendment was published in the Official Gazette on June 8, opening the way for the trial of 152 legislators, amounting to 27.6 percent of the total number of seats. Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government have long accused the HDP of being “a political front” for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and “aiding and supporting terrorism.”

“They were challenging. They were calling for the removal of immunities. You have seen how they cried out with rage when the removal of immunities was put on the agenda, haven’t you? Now they are touring the west,” Erdoğan said regarding tours by Demirtaş and other HDP deputies to raise awareness about human rights abuses allegedly committed by the state in Southeast Anatolia.

“The terrorist organization sets fire, destroys and vandalizes; and the state, on the other hand, builds, constructs and rehabilitates. The terrorist organization might be prevented from staging acts of terror if required precautions are implemented; however, if it cannot be ensured that the people of the region put distance between themselves and the terrorist organization, the terrorist organization resurges and regains strength,” Erdoğan said.

“Examples of this have been seen in the past many times. Of course it is a must that circles that act with the terrorist organization and put their means and will under the command of the terrorist organization be swiftly clamped down on. In this regard, the removal of legislative immunities was an important step,” he said.