A pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker, Semra Güzel, who recently came under fire for posing in photos with a member of the PKK terrorist group, had met with the terrorist in 2016, a witness confessed on Saturday.

H.D., who was arrested for aiding the PKK within the scope of an investigation carried out by the Adıyaman chief public prosecutor’s office, was determined to have held several phone calls with Güzel in 2016.

H.D. confessed that Güzel communicated with the PKK terrorist through his phone and arranged a meeting with him in the same year.

Photos of HDP deputy Güzel with PKK terrorist Volkan Bora were widely circulated in Turkish media on Sunday.

PKK terrorist Volkan Bora, code-named "Koçero Meleti," whom the HDP lawmaker claimed was her fiancee, 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 and soldier Mücahit Şimşek on June 24, 2016, and village guard Yusuf Sönmez on Sept. 9, 2016.

Bora was killed by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the southeastern Adıyaman province in 2017.

Güzel defended the pictures, claiming that she had been engaged to the terrorist and the photos were being used as propaganda to target her.

H.D. further said that he met with Bora while working and that he asked to use his phone to speak with his fiancee Güzel. He said that the use of his phone by the PKK to speak with the HDP lawmaker continued for a long time.

The claims of H.D. were ratified through HTS (Historical Traffic Search) recordings. According to the HTS reports, Güzel went to Adıyaman twice – the first being on May 21, 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.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week said that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) does not want any lawmakers with connections to PKK terrorists in the Turkish Parliament, echoing similar remarks by People's Alliance partner Devlet Bahçeli, who called on the Constitutional Court to ban the HDP over its relations with the PKK terrorist group.