​The parliament is getting ready to lift its own immunities

TURKEY - In Brief 14 Apr 2016 by Atilla Yesilada

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It fills my heart with joy to receive questions from you, because it means Turkey is still being covered. Here is the latest query: “Hello, I have a question on the talks about removing the HDP immunity. We read that now CHP would not be against it. What exactly does it mean in terms of repercussions? With the current state of the judiciary we can reasonably think that they might be indicted and so in terms of the arithmetic would that change completely the stake in terms of the referendum options, the weight of the AKP in the legislature etc? Should we see such an outcome as a possible game changer? “ As of today, both main opposition party CHP and the nationalist MHP stated that their deputies would support an AKP motion to provisionally amend an article of the constitution to lift the immunities of 112 deputies who have arrest warrants, ongoing lawsuits or indictments standing against them. The new amendment would not apply to criminal offenses conducted after the adoption of the amendment, if it is ratified by the parliament. I need to do more fact checking but the numbers I have show 43 HDP deputies (out of 50) currently being affected by the new legislation. While in the past such legislation has failed in secret balloting, because deputies were afraid that the law would deal with them, nowadays party discipline is much stronger and it might just pass. I agree with the query that those courts would try the cases of HDP are largely under the sway of Erdogan, and it is largely up to him whether he wants to decimate the party or punish a select few, such as 5-8 who have been outspoken in their support of PKK/KCK and local autonomy. The law states that if 5% or more ...