The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has decided to withdraw from parliamentary work following the arrest of nine of its deputies including the party’s co-chairs last Friday.
“We have decided to halt our work in the legislature,” HDP spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen said at a news conference following a two-day-long party meeting in Diyarbakır on Sunday.
From now on, HDP deputies will not attend sessions in Parliament or commission meetings.
Turkish courts on Friday arrested nine HDP deputies including the party’s co-chairs, who were detained in the early hours of Friday following police raids on their homes.
HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and deputies İdris Baluken, Leyla Birlik, Nursel Aydoğan, Selma Irmak, Ferhat Encü and Gülser Yıldırım were arrested on Friday afternoon.
