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The Turkish Interior Ministry has issued a travel ban on Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul MP Zeynel Özen, reported Mezopotamya News Agency on Monday.
The Kurdish and Alevi MP, who also has Swedish nationality, went to Istanbul Airport on Monday to travel to Sweden to visit his family, but could not board his plane, learning at the airport that he was not allowed to leave the country due to the travel ban.
Özen, who is also a member of the Committee on European Union Harmonisation and who regularly visits European countries, found the ban illogical.
Özen said on Twitter that the ban should be immediately lifted, adding that it was unlawful to impose a travel ban arbitrarily and vindictively without a court order or a notification.
Özen actively works to ensure equal rights for Turkey’s Alevis, one of the largest religious groups in Turkey.
Following the collapse of negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish government launched a crackdown against Kurdish politicians, which involved mass arrests of Kurdish politicians and stripping MPs of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of their parliamentary immunity.
