A prosecutor in Diyarbakır recently launched an investigation into human rights activist and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu on suspicion of terrorist support since he failed to criticize a speech by the party’s chairman that the state deemed as propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The deputy himself announced the probe along with a copy of the official document on his Twitter account on Tuesday
Gergerlioğlu is accused of failing to condemn an address by HDP Co-chairman Pervin Buldan during a conference on Oct. 28 in which she urged the Turkish state to end the “isolation” of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who had long been denied any visitors to his island prison.
The prosecutor considers Gergerlioğlu’s lack of criticism an indication of support for terrorist propaganda.
Gergerlioğlu is a vocal human rights activist in parliament and is known for his work on human rights violations, especially after a failed coup in July 2016.
The Kurdish political movement has come under intense pressure from the current government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is bent on marginalizing pro-Kurdish political organizations with the help of a military crackdown and abuse of the criminal justice system.
In its report titled “Kurdish Political Movement under Crackdown in Turkey: The Case of the HDP,” SCF gives a snapshot of what has happened since February 2015, when HDP representatives and Justice and Development Party (AKP) ministers came together for the last time to publicly discuss how to move forward in resolving the Kurdish problem, coming up with a deal known as the Dolmabahçe Agreement. Erdoğan torpedoed the agreement to win nationalists and launched a campaign of stigmatizing, demonizing and marginalizing the most significent Kurdish political movement in Turkey’s history. (SCF, turkishminute.com)
