President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) does not want any lawmakers related to the 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 pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) over its relations with the PKK terrorist group.
"We do not want to see extensions of the PKK terrorist group in the Turkish Parliament," Erdoğan told his party's parliamentary group meeting on Wednesday.
He criticized other parties, including the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party (IP) for remaining silent.
The president's remarks were in response to the HDP Diyarbakır deputy Semra Güzel's photos with a PKK terrorist, who she said was her fiancee.
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 in an airstrike by the Turkish military in rural Adıyaman province in 2017. The photos were discovered during investigations.
Güzel defended the pictures, claiming that she had been engaged to the terrorist and the photos were being used as propaganda to target her.
On Tuesday, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Bahçeli also said his party does not want terrorists in Parliament, as he strongly criticized the HDP for its relations with terrorists.
“We cannot tolerate seeing the HDP in Turkey’s political and democratic sphere, not even for a second,” he said, adding that they expect the Constitutional Court to take action.
The summary of proceedings prepared by the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office on Güzel's case was sent to Parliament on Wednesday. The Constitution-Justice Joint Commission is expected to evaluate the case. The HDP lawmaker may lose parliamentary immunity and face prosecution in the case that her immunity is lifted.
The HDP is currently facing a closure case for its ties to the terrorist group.
The indictment accuses HDP leaders and its members of acting in a way that flouts the democratic and universal rules of law, colluding with PKK terrorists and affiliated groups and aiming to destroy and eliminate the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation.
The move follows growing calls by Turkish political leaders for the HDP to be officially closed down. In recent years, more and more HDP executives and elected officials have been charged with terrorism-related offenses.
The HDP has also been criticized for transferring taxpayer money and funds to the PKK. HDP mayors and local officials have been found to misuse funds in support of the PKK terrorist group and provide jobs to PKK sympathizers.
Its mayors have been accused of undermining municipal services, allowing the PKK to dig ditches in the streets and launch attacks on police and soldiers when the terrorist group adopted an urban warfare strategy in July 2015 and ended a two-year reconciliation period.
HDP municipalities and their staff were also found to be actively participating in terrorist attacks launched after July 2015.
The party's role in the riots of Oct. 6-7, 2014, was also included in the indictment. In October 2014, amid a Daesh siege on the YPG, on Ain al-Arab (Kobani) Demirtaş and other HDP officials called for riots.
