Turkish police use pepper spray against opposition lawmakers protesting removal of MPs

Turkish police used pepper spray to disperse a group of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers in capital Ankara protesting on Friday the stripping of parliament seats of three opposition MPs, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

Ankara riot police intervened in the group in a bid to stop the deputies making their way to the city’s Güvenpark, ripping apart banners held by members of the group that read, “There is a coup,” it said.

Turkey’s parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish HDP lawmakers and another from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) of their parliamentary status on Thursday after their convictions on assorted terror charges were upheld by an appeals court.

CHP’s Enis Berberoğlu, and HDP’s Leyla Güven and Musa Farisoğulları were arrested the same day. Berberoğlu has since been released.

HDP deputies issued a statement on the stripping of the opposition lawmaker’s seats in front of Parliament on Friday, before marching toward Güvenpark, Cumhuriyet said.

HDP Group Deputy Chairwoman Meral Danış Beştaş said the latest development was a continuation of “the coup” that began on Nov. 4, 2016, in an apparent reference to the arrest of HDP’s former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

Beştaş vowed that the HDP would not bow down to “putschists.”

“One does not have to be a deputy to represent the Kurdish people,” Leyla Güven said in a message she sent from prison. “We will continue our struggle (for freedom) in every area of life.”

Ankara accuses the HDP of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terrorist organization by the EU, United States, and Turkey. The HDP denies direct links.

The HDP is preparing to further protest the unseating of opposition deputies by holding a march to Ankara, T24 news site reported.

HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar will lead the March from the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Hakkari and the northwestern province of Edirne to the Turkish capital as of June 15, it said.