Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Semra Güzel was demoted from her parliamentary seat on the grounds of absenteeism in a vote held in the Turkish parliament on Thursday.
Güzel was arrested with terrorism charges on 3 September after her parliamentary immunity was lifted in March over a photo of her with a PKK guerrilla that was circulated in the pro-government media years after it was taken.
In the vote held in the Turkish assembly, Güzel was stripped of her parliamentary seat by the votes of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
HDP Group Deputy Chairman Saruhan Oluç said that the AKP and MHP deputies voted without listening to the defence in favour of Güzel. HDP co-chairs and deputies protested the decision and left the assembly.
HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan described the decision as “anti-Kurdish and misogynist” in a post on her social media account.
The photos of the HDP deputy with a Kurdish guerrilla, who was killed in an airstrike by the Turkish Armed Forces in 2017, were published by pro-government media organisations. Güzel said that the Kurdish fighter in the photos was her fiancé at the time and the photo was “taken during the resolution process” in 2014 when she was not affiliated with any political party.