Turkish National Assembly strips HDP deputy Semra Güzel of her parliamentary immunity

The Turkey’s National Assembly has stripped Semra Güzel of her parliamentary immunity. In the previous debate in parliament, the HDP deputy parliamentary group leader Saruhan Oluç presented a three-hour defense of the 38-year-old MP.

In the subsequent vote, 313 MEPs from the other parliamentary groups voted in favor of lifting the immunity; 52 MEPs voted against. The parliamentary group of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) left the meeting room after the decision, amid loud protests.

The HDP tweeted: “This unlawful decision does not alter the fact that Semra Güzel is an elected representative of the people. We will never capitulate to those trying to usurp the will of the people.”

Impending prison sentence

Semra Güzel’s file is now going to the Ministry of Justice and will be forwarded from there to the public prosecutor’s office. The Kurdish politician faces a long prison sentence for treason and terrorism. The preparatory work for this was done by a state-controlled-media defamation campaign against the Kurdish politician and doctor.

The smear campaign used photos showing Güzel with guerrilla Volkan Bora (nom de guerre: Koçero Meletî) against the MP. The photos were taken in a southern Kurdish guerrilla camp in 2014, when an HDP delegation visited the PKK as part of the peace process with the knowledge of the state to discuss further steps towards de-escalation.

Guerrilla Volkan Bora, who died in April 2017 in Turkish air raids in the northern Kurdish province of Adıyaman, was Güzel’s former fiancé. From the pictures with him, the public prosecutor’s office constructed allegations such as “membership in a terrorist organization” and “financing terrorism” against the politician.

Güzel allegedly visited PKK camps in southern Kurdistan several times after fighting resumed. The HDP said that the defamation campaign was a propaganda maneuver in the course of the banning process against the party.