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Pervin Buldan, co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), held a press conference the day before a parliamentary commission meeting to decide whether or not to refer the case of an MP to the General Assembly for a vote.
Diyarbakır MP Saliha Aydeniz, against whom the prosecution recently initiated proceedings with charges of ‘resisting the police’ and ‘insulting and injuring a public official’, may be stripped of her parliamentary status and immunity by a parliamentary vote.
Buldan said that the political administration had almost every institution under its thumb, that the parliament was no exception to this, and that it was already obvious that MPs of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who make up the majority of the commission’s members, would not hesitate to comply with instructions and refer the case to the General Assembly.
She said:
“So the meeting tomorrow be a blow to democratic politics. I want to reiterate here that we do not accept and will never accept this coup against the will of the parliament, the will of the peoples, and the will of the people of Diyarbakır.”
The prosecution started proceedings against Saliha Aydeniz after she was engaged in a quarrel with police officers and allegedly struck one during an incident on 12 June, when the police attacked a demonstration protesting against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and arrested dozens of protestors.
