Ahmet Şık, a deputy from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was attacked by a group of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies during a speech in Turkish Parliament on Monday, the T24 news website reported.
According to the report, the newly elected Şık was criticizing legislation proposed by the ruling AKP which is chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as the now-ended but continuing unlawfulness of a state of emergency declared after a coup attempt in 2016. When he used the words “’immorality” and “shamelessness,” the AKP deputies stood up to attack him.
In an interview with the Evrensel daily, Şık said AKP group deputy chairman Bülent Turan started the attack, using swearwords and provoking his colleagues.
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mustafa Şentop turned off Şık’s microphone and said, “Ahmet Şık’s words require him to be temporarily dismissed him from Parliament.” In an immediate vote, Şık was banned from the next two sessions in the legislature. The other HDP deputies left the general assembly with him.
Şık is a journalist for the Cumhuriyet newspaper and was elected as an HDP deputy in the last elections on June 24. He was imprisoned for 15 months between December 2016 and March 2018 due to his tweets and news stories. (turkishminute.com)
