Parliament speaker meets with BDP to urge end of boycott

The state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Monday that Çiçek had talks with BDP parliamentary group Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş and Siirt deputy Gültan Kışanak to discuss the boycott.

The BDP earlier announced that they would boycott Parliament in protest of the Supreme Election Board’s (YSK) decision regarding Hatip Dicle and five other of its jailed deputies. The YSK stripped Dicle of his mandate over a prior terrorism-related conviction after the June 12 vote, which led to outrage among the pro-Kurdish party and its supporters. A total of 36 independent deputies supported by the pro-Kurdish BDP were elected in the June 12 elections. However, six of the BDP-sponsored deputies are currently under arrest as part of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) trial.

Demirtaş on Sunday complained that his party was not included in ongoing talks between the ruling and the main opposition party to solve the recent oath impasse in Parliament, indicating that his party's deputies could have taken the oath of office had they been invited to the talks. He said the approach of the CHP and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) can be described as “otherification.”

“There are 35 [BDP] deputies. They are also the deputies of Turkey. They are elected members of Parliament. However, the approach of the AK Party and the CHP is otherification. While we were trying to be open to dialogue and to solve the problem, we were exposed to otherification. Unless this attitude changes, we cannot take the oath,” he said.

According to Demirtaş, the AK Party and CHP’s joint declaration is not binding for the BDP, as the two parties did not include the BDP in the process. “They did not invite us. But they should have. Had we also been included in this process and had the joint declaration also included our opinions, we would have also taken the oath of office and become an opposition party. But they did not want to see us. They preferred to ignore 35 deputies,” he noted.

Turkish broadcasters said late on Monday that the talks between the AK Party and CHP were positive and that BDP officials told Çiçek that they would discuss Çiçek’s views with their party in Diyarbakır, where the pro-Kurdish party is holding its group meetings.