“If these friends really want to make politics in Turkey and serve the Turkish public, then they should reconsider their actions in the past in order to not repeat the past,” he said on Sunday in the Turkish capital. Şahin participated in a tree-planting ceremony in a forested area in the Gölbaşı neighborhood.
Şahin’s remarks came in response to a question by a member of the press who asked the Parliament speaker about his views about a planned visit by former DTP members to the Makhmur refugee camp in northern Iraq. “They need to derive necessary lessons from past experiences. … If they do such things at the very beginning, the public will have difficulty in viewing their movement positively,” he stated.
The Constitutional Court disbanded the pro-Kurdish DTP last week on charges of separatism. Its deputies then announced that they will join the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to continue their political struggle in Parliament. Former DTP deputies, however, had originally announced that they would resign from Parliament in protest of the court verdict in a move that could have led to by-elections in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.
The BDP was established after the closure case was launch against the DTP and was regarded as a potential replacement in case the pro-Kurdish party was banned. Şahin also said he “understood” the decision of former DTP deputies to continue in politics by joining another political party. “However, I believe they should be very careful in order not to face similar repercussions in the future,” he added.
Last Friday, the Constitutional Court also ruled to rescind Ahmet Türk’s parliamentary membership and that of the DTP’s former co-chair, Aysel Tuğluk.
Thirty-five other members of the DTP, including some of its founders, have been banned from politics for the next five years. The DTP had 21 deputies in Parliament. With Türk and Tuğluk losing their status as deputies, the remaining 19 will continue to serve in Parliament.
