Turkey Strips 3 Legislators of Seats, Setting Off Protest

Source:New York Times Date:07Jun2020

The legislators are Enis Berberoglu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, who went on trial on espionage charges for allegedly leaking to an opposition newspaper images that allegedly showed Turkey’s intelligence agency smuggling weapons into Syria, and Leyla Guven and Musa Farisoglullari of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, who were convicted of links to Kurdish rebels. The parties deny the accusations and maintain that the cases against the legislators are politically-motivated.

The CHP maintains Berberoglu was stripped of his status and legal immunity prematurely, arguing that his case is still being reviewed by Turkey’s highest court. The party also says the AK Party broke away with the tradition of delaying the reading of the court decisions until the end of the legislative term.