Court orders apprehension of pro-Kurdish deputies

The cases involve charges of allegedly promoting the cause of a terrorist organization.

“This is separatism, this is division of the state by the state's hand,” Demirtaş told Today's Zaman and added that they will not go to court willingly. The pro-Kurdish deputies are facing trial for promoting the cause of a terrorist organization, namely the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Demirtaş was the parliamentary group chairman of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) but now is a deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which replaced the DTP. Ayna also after the closure of the DTP become a member of the BDP.

Türk and Tuğluk were in DTP leadership positions but were banned from politics for five years by the Constitutional Court when it shuttered the party. This ruling will remove Türk and Tuğluk from Parliament, but since the justification of the court decision has not yet been released the two leaders still retain their parliamentary immunity. They both had announced that they would appear in court to give testimony after the closure of the DTP but said that their immunities would first have to be revoked. However, parliamentary immunity will not prevent either Demirtaş or Ayna from being apprehended now, under this latest court ruling.

The court cases against the deputies have been ongoing for years, and this is just the latest chapter in the court’s quest to force the deputies and party officials to testify before the court despite their parliamentary immunity. According to the Constitution, if a deputy is charged with a crime “against the indivisibility of the state,” the trial may proceed despite their immunity. But the law is not explicit as to which crimes are against the indivisibility of the state.

Ahmet Türk, leader of the now-defunct DTP, said he and a number of his fellow deputies are not fleeing justice but that they will testify at a time appropriate for them because they are victims of an “irrational” ruling.

Although the government announced that it was ready for the constitutional changes necessary to prevent similar further crises after the decision of the Ankara court, it has not yet acted.

Police search for deputies

The court, in previous hearings, had authorized police to bring the deputies to the courtroom; within this framework security forces yesterday went to addresses associated with the deputies, including the headquarters of the BDP in Ankara, which was the headquarter of the defunct DTP, too, early in the morning.

But the deputies were not there.

According to procedure the court will issue a justification explaining its decision and send it to the security forces. Then, if the police apprehend the deputies they will take them to the court on duty, where they will be released after giving testimony. The court’s final decisions in the cases against them will be made at later hearings.

“Practically, this means that the ball is in the court of the police forces, or in other words, the Ministry of Interior,” Öztürk Türkdoğan, the chairman of the Human Rights Association (İHD), said.

“The future is not bright, and unfortunately there is no visible intention of changing it,” Demirtaş said. He said the decision of the court is separatism by the state’s hand because now Kurds feel their Kurdishness more than ever.

“A Kurdish deputy thinks the decision to apprehend has been made due to his being a Kurd, a Kurdish mayor thinks that he is arrested and handcuffed for being Kurdish and Kurdish children believe that they face heavy charges because they are Kurds. This is called separatism,” he said.

Security forces carried out simultaneous raids against member of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), allegedly the urban arm of the PKK, last week.

Suspected KCK members were detained in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Hakkari, Tunceli, Batman, Şanlırfa, Şırnak and Van. Among them were mayors of several predominantly Kurdish cities including Batman Mayor Nejdet Atalay, Diyarbakır’s Kayapınar Mayor Zülküf Karatekin, Sur Mayor Abdullah Demirbaş, Cizre Mayor Aydın Budak, Suruç Mayor Ethem Şahin, Kızıltepe Mayor Ferhan Türk and Viranşehir Mayor Leyla Güven.

The detainees, including the mayors, were handcuffed while waiting in the garden of the courthouse in Diyarbakır, a move that led to reactions in some segments of society. The Ministry of Interior has launched an investigation over the handcuffing. The Diyarbakır Bar Association in a statement said that handcuffing the mayors deeply disrespected Kurds. “Kurds are not able to tolerate this insult any longer. The roads to the mountains are pointed out to our youngsters, and I cannot stand in their way to say ‘Don’t go’,” Demirtaş said.

He added that until Parliament finds a solution to this problem, they will not testify of their own volition. BDP Muş deputy Sırrı Sakık said the deputies under summons will not run or hide and that they are ready to be handcuffed. “The government is talking about a democratization initiative, but it has not done anything during the process. They do not really intend to solve the problem,” Sakık told reporters in front of the headquarters of the BDP.

The court’s decision agrees with the prosecution’s argument, which holds that promoting the cause of a terrorist organization falls under the category of a crime against the indivisibility of the state as described in Article 14 of the Constitution.