Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party boycotts parliament

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the second-largest opposition grouping in parliament, said it would not fully withdraw, but its deputies would stop participating in sessions of the legislature or meetings of parliamentary commissions.

The partial boycott will further heighten concern among Western allies about the state of democracy in Turkey, a NATO member which aspires to join the European Union. 

More than 110,000 officials - from soldiers and judges to teachers and journalists - have been detained or suspended since a failed military coup in July, in what critics of President Tayyip Erdogan say is a crackdown on all forms of dissent. “After discussions with our parliamentary group and our central executive board, we have decided to halt our legislative efforts in light of everything that has happened,” HDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said in a statement read out in front of the party’s offices in Diyarbakir and broadcast online. 

HDP officials would consult with the party’s supporters, many of whom are in the largely Kurdish southeast, and could then consider a full withdrawal from parliament, he said. Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, the HDP’s co-leaders, were jailed pending trial as part of a terrorism investigation on Friday. Ten other HDP lawmakers were also detained, although some were later released.