Two pro-Kurdish MPs stripped of parliamentary status for insulting Erdogan, social media posts

The Turkish Parliament stripped pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Ahmet Yıldırım and İbrahim Ayhan of their parliamentary status on Tuesday.

The move came after their convictions were upheld by appeal courts.

Yıldırım was earlier sentenced to 14 months in jail for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a speech in which he referred to the president as a “hack sultan.”

Meanwhile, Ayhan was given one year and three months over his social media postings that the court in charge deemed spreading terror propaganda.

The number of HDP deputies in the parliament dropped from 59 to 50 with the pair’s removal.

The government has recently intensified pressure against the Kurdish minority in the country. While Kurdish majority cities were turned upside down with consecutive military attacks, hundreds of Kurdish politicians were jailed. Hundreds of academics, teachers were also rounded up over broadened terror charges.

HDP deputies Figen Yüksekdağ, Nursel Aydoğan, Besime Konca, Faysal Sarıyıldız, Leyla Zana, Tuğba Hezer Öztürk and Ferhat Encü were earlier stripped of their parliamentary status.

The following nine HDP deputies are currently being held behind bars:  Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ, İdris Baluken, Selma Irmak, Gülser Yıldırım, Ferhat Encü, Abdullah Zeydan, Çağlar Demirel and Burcu Çelik.