Three Turkish opposition MPs expelled from office and arrested

Three opposition MPs in Turkey have been detained on espionage and terrorism charges after being stripped of parliamentary immunity, in a move that critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan say is an attempt to neuter opposition parties before possible snap elections.

Appeals courts upheld the convictions of Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) and Enis Berberoğlu of the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) on Thursday.

In a tense parliamentary session it was announced that the three had been expelled from office, lifting their parliamentary immunity. Berberoğlu was arrested in Istanbul and the two HDP MPs were taken into police custody in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakır on Thursday night.

Güven and Farisoğulları have been charged over alleged links to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), and Berberoğlu with disclosing government secrets.

“This is the trampling and theft of the will of the voters and the Kurdish people,” the HDP deputy Saruhan Oluç said in a speech in parliament.

The CHP leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said Berberoğlu’s detention was another chapter in the government’s continued crackdown on dissent since a 2016 coup attempt against the president.

“We will keep up with the struggle for democracy in order to restore justice, rights and law,” he tweeted.

Members of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) defended the decision to strip the MPs of immunity, saying it was in line with parliamentary procedure.

Over the last four years Turkey has used state of emergency powers and sweeping anti-terrorism legislation to enact a widespread purge against Erdoğan’s detractors.

Thousands of politicians, civil servants, journalists, academics, lawyers and members of the military have been jailed over alleged links to the PKK and to Fethullah Gülen, an exiled cleric and former ally of the president whom Erdoğan blames for the failed coup.

The HDP has been targeted aggressively. Forty-five of the 65 HDP mayors elected in local elections in March 2019 have been removed from office and 21 have been imprisoned over accusations of links to the PKK.

The ruling AKP coalition plans to push measures through parliament that could make it harder for new opposition parties formed by Erdoğan’s former allies to contest elections.

Speculation is growing that the government is considering snap elections to preserve its 18-year-old rule in the face of an economic crisis that has dented the AKP’s popularity with its core voters.