The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office prepared summaries of proceedings for a total of 19 deputies of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and submitted them to the Justice Ministry on Monday, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
According to the report the summaries of proceedings have been prepared for deputies for “disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization” on May 2, 2016.
The HDP deputies protested and walked out of a Constitution Commission meeting where a proposal to lift the political immunity of deputies was being discussed, in the Turkish Parliament on May 2, 2016.
The prosecutor’s office accused HDP deputies Dirayet Taşdemir, Sibel Yiğitalp, Çağlar Demirel, Hüda Kaya, Ayşe Acar Başaran, Adem Geveri, Mithat Sancar, Ferhat Encu, Gülser Yıldırım, İbrahim Ayhan, Garo Paylan, Bedia Özgökçe Ertan, Meral Danış Beştaş, Mahmut Toğrul, Ertuğrul Kürkcü, Mizgin Irgat, Saadet Becerekli, Nadir Yıldırım and Ziya Pir of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) while leaving the commission meeting.
Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians since 2016. 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. Ten HDP deputies including co-chairpersons Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ are still in prison.