Pro-Kurdish party boycotts Turkish parliament after leaders arrested

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party announced Sunday that it will halt its legislative activities in parliament following the arrests of nine of its legislators.

Yet Ayhan Bilgen, the spokesman for the Peoples' Democratic Party or HDP, told The Associated Press the party will not withdraw from parliament, saying that decision can only "be made in consultation with the people." The party will stop participating in parliamentary commissions and the parliamentary assembly.

Instead the HDP will "go house to house" listening to the people following "the most extensive and darkest attack in our democratic political history," Bilgen said at a news conference in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

HDP co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag were arrested Friday on terrorism-related charges, along with seven other legislators. The move prompted messages of concern from the U.S. and Europe that the arrests undermined Turkey's democracy.

Can Dunar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhurryiet, Turkey's main opposition newspaper which was raided by Turkish police last Monday, has predicted the end of the parliamentary system in Turkey after authorities arrested the leaders of the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party in a terrorism probe on Friday.

'Nothing different than bombing the parliament'

He likened the arrests to the failed coup attempt of July: "I mean arresting the parliamentarians is nothing different than bombing the parliament," he told Reuters in his exile in Berlin on Friday. "So, without a parliament, without the rule of law, without free press, what do you think will be left in the country? Just the fascists."

The journalist, who was convicted earlier in the year, accused of revealing state secrets, and is living in exile in Berlin, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to suppress all critical voices.

"He started with the journalists, the academics, the bureaucrats, army personnel. And now it's the turn for the parliamentarians, and that means the end of parliamentarian system in Turkey," Dundar said. 

3rd-largest party

The HDP entered parliament last year as the nation's third-largest party with 59 legislators. In May, Turkey's parliament voted to strip legislators who have complaints against them of legal immunity, paving the way for the arrests.

Turkey's government accuses the HDP of being the political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which has waged a three-decades-long insurgency against the state. The party rejects the accusation.

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told private broadcaster NTV that the HDP's decision to halt its participation would not have a negative effect on legislation.

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