A motion has been filed against pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy Çağlar Demirel for disseminating “terrorist propaganda” by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, CNN Türk reported on Tuesday.
The motion said Demirel made a speech on July 1, 2016 on the occasion of events held to mark the anniversary of the death of 37 people in Sivas on July 2, 1993 and referred to operations by Turkish security forces as “fascism,” “torture” and “violence.”
Demirel’s speech was seen as legitimizing the armed conflicts of terrorist groups and she was accused of praising terrorism and encouraging the use of terrorist methods.
Since Demirel is a deputy, a permission is needed for the removal of her parliamentary immunity. If her immunity is removed, legal action will be taken against the deputy, who could be sentenced to between one-and-a-half and five years in prison on charges of terrorist propaganda.
The government has been criticized for stepping up a crackdown on Kurdish politicians.
There are currently 11 HDP deputies behind bars in Turkey. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while hundreds of local Kurdish politicians have been arrested on terror charges.