Turkey removes three opposition MPs in power move: parties

ANKARA: The Turkish parliament on Thursday stripped three opposition lawmakers of their jobs, triggering furious charges that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is seeking to further consolidate authoritarian rule.

The parliament controlled by Erdogan's AKP party barred an MP from the main opposition Republican People´s Party (CHP) and two others from the pro-Kurdish Kurdish Peoples´ Democratic Party (HDP) from serving in the assembly, the parties said. The move lifts their parliamentary immunity,paving the way for their imprisonment as courts have previously sentenced them on espionage or terror-related charges.

But it provoked uproar as opposition MPs banged their fists on their desks and called for unity against what they described as "fascism." CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu denounced the move against MP Enis Berberoglu as yet another step in Erdogan´s continuing crackdown on the opposition since the failed 2016 coup against the president.

"We will keep up with the struggle for democracy in order to restore justice, rights and law," Kilicdaroglu tweeted. The Kurdish HDP party tweeted to denounce the ouster of its MPs Leyla Guven and Musa Farisogullari as an "unlawful step," using the hashtag #MeclisteDarbeVar (There is a coup in the parliament).

"Guven & Farisogullari represent the will of millions. Revocation of their parliamentary seats will not intimidate us and our peoples!" the party said. In 2019, the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the prison sentences given to the pair on charges of membership of the outlawed Kurdish militants listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The government accuses the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK) -- an armed group which has waged a bloody insurgency against the state since 1984. CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu was allowed to walk free in 2018 from 16 months in an Istanbul prison after winning election to parliament in the June 24, 2018 snap election but will now return to complete his sentence. "It is not a surprise decision for me," Berberoglu said during a visit to the CHP headquarters. "I will surrender to the prison in the coming days in order to serve the remaining 18 month-sentence."