The controversial Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament, Leyla Zana, is expected to be dismissed from the legislature for missing sessions, according to Turkish media.
Judicial and constitutional commissions from the Turkish parliament have prepared a report on Zana, asking for her dismissal. The report claims that Zana missed 212 consecutive days between October 1, 2016 and April 30, 2017, reported Haber Turk.
The parliament will discuss her dismissal on Wednesday. Her chance of staying in the parliament is low as the ruling party, AKP, is the majority – holding 316 out of 550 seats in the parliament.
Zana’s party, HDP, condemned the move to force her out of the parliament.
“At the moment, the dismissal of Leyla Zana’s membership is being discussed in the parliament. The fearless defender of the Kurdish people’s fight for democracy, dignified peace, equality, and freedom, Leyla Zana, is the representative of the people,” HDP stated in a tweet Tuesday night.
It was the will of the people that made her an MP, and only the “people can take it away,” the party added.
The AKP and the pro-Kurdish HDP have a combative relationship.
The Turkish parliament previously dismissed two other HDP deputies, Tugba Hezer Ozturk and Faysal Sariyildiz.
HDP deputy Mehmet Emin Adiyman has argued that parliament cannot dismiss Layla Zana because she has not been sworn in as an MP.
“Layla Zana has not received [her] salary, allowance, [security] personnel, vehicle, office and immunity since the beginning and she has not been treated as a member of parliament, therefore, her dismissal violates the parliament by-law,” explained Adiyman.
Zana’s parliamentary oath was not accepted. Before taking her oath on November 17, 2015, she cheered in Kurdish “biji aşit,” meaning “long live peace.”
She also changed the wording of the oath to "the nation of Turkey" instead of the "Turkish nation."
The Republican People's Party's (CHP) Deniz Baykal, who was then presiding over the assembly as acting speaker, asked Zana to recite the oath statement again, without her changes, but Zana refused. Her oath was, therefore, declared void.
This was not the first time Zana has stirred up controversy in the parliament. In 1991, she defied Turkish law when she recited the final portion of her oath in Kurdish.
"I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people," she said, earning herself a 10-year prison term.
The Turkish parliament has harsh punishments for speaking in Kurdish or using the word ‘Kurdistan.’ HDP’s spokesperson Osman Baydemir was temporarily barred from the parliament in December for doing so.
http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/09012018
