In Turkey, police on Sunday arrested Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
As reported by the Interfax agency, he was arrested at the party headquarters, where he had spent four days in protest against being stripped of his parliamentary mandate. The party stated that at the moment of the arrest, the politician was in his nightclothes and slippers and was preparing for the morning prayer.
Parliament had earlier stripped Gergerlioglu of his parliamentary status and the associated immunity, on charges of carrying out terrorist propaganda.
Days earlier, the country’s prosecutor’s office had filed charges against the party for alleged links with Kurdish militants and had applied to the Constitutional Court with a request to suspend the party’s activities.
The United States has warned the Turkish authorities that the closure of the pro-Kurdish party would be a new blow to democracy in Turkey. The US State Department noted that Washington is closely following the events taking place in the Turkish parliament.
