The Turkish Parliament revoked pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party's (HDP) Diyarbakır province deputy Semra Güzel’s legislative immunity over her relationship with a senior PKK terrorist.
The General Assembly held a vote to decide on her legislative immunity after parliament commission members submitted a report regarding her immunity.
The HDP requested a dispute based on the report’s constitutionality before it was submitted to the Parliament, but the request was rejected by Parliament’s Deputy Chairperson Celal Adan.
HDP Group Deputy Chairperson Hakkı Saruhan Oluç spoke on behalf of the party to defend Güzel in a three-hour speech. He claimed that visiting PKK camps alone did not amount to enough evidence to launch a probe and that people who visit the terrorist camps cannot be labeled as terrorist members.
Some 365 lawmakers voted in the first round, 313 of whom voted "yes" and 52 of whom voted "no" to lift the HDP lawmaker’s immunity. In the second round, 327 lawmakers voted in favor of lifting her immunity, while 52 voted against it.
HDP lawmakers reacted against the decision, holding placards expressing their disapproval.
The decision is expected to pave the way for criminal prosecution against Güzel.
Photos of Güzel with PKK terrorist Volkan Bora were widely circulated in Turkish media in January.
PKK terrorist Volkan Bora, code-named "Koçero Meleti," whom the HDP lawmaker claimed was her fiance, was one of the perpetrators of two terrorist attacks in Adıyaman province. He was part of the terrorist squad that killed gendarmerie Cpl. Müsellim Ünal, a soldier named Mücahit Şimşek on June 24, 2016 and a village guard named Yusuf Sönmez on Sept. 9, 2016.
Bora was killed in a counterterrorism operation in Turkey’s southeastern Adıyaman province in 2017.
A report to end her immunity has been submitted to the Office of the Parliament Speaker and the joint committee formed by constitution and justice committee lawmakers will debate it Thursday.
Güzel defended the pictures, claiming that she was engaged to the terrorist and the photos were being used as "propaganda" to target her.
She said they got engaged after a romantic relationship while they were in university and that she was unable to see him between 2009 and 2014.
She claimed that she went to northern Iraq between 2013-2015, during the reconciliation period, to see her "loved one" and that she was not a member of a political party back then. But a witness noted that she also met with him in 2016.
The HDP has been subject to public criticism for transferring taxpayer money and funds to the PKK, an internationally recognized terrorist group. HDP mayors and local officials are known to have misallocated funds in support of the PKK and provided jobs to the group's sympathizers.