Strasbourg, 08/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Criticising the autocratic drift of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the regime's bombing of Kurdish towns and civilians, which have claimed over 6,000 lives, the Kurdish Friendship Group at the European Parliament was due to propose in Strasbourg on Wednesday 8 June that all willing MEPs take part in a personal sponsorship operation with each of the 138 members of the HDP party who have had their immunity lifted in Turkey.
The initiative spans the political movements and was presented to the European press by Marie Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL, France), co-leader of the Kurdish Friendship Group at the Parliament, Bodil Valero (Greens/EFA, Sweden), co-leader of the group, and Ana-Maria Gomes (S&D, Portugal), who is a member of the group, the same day the Turkish law collectively lifting the immunity came into effect, and ahead of the European Parliament's plenary session debate on Wednesday evening with European Commissioner on Neighbourhood Policy on the state of democracy in Turkey.
“As the Friendship Group, we will propose sponsoring the HDP parliamentarians to protect them in the official framework of the European Parliament”, Vergiat stated. The initiative originates from the unified Left in the German Bundestag, where the protection of parliamentarians by German parliamentarians already exists. It does not, however, currently exist in the European Parliament, a German MEP stated, confident that “some members of the EPP are ready to join the movement”.
“In the elections, the HDP had many votes from the Kurds and Turks living in Sweden, Turks who know how democracy works. The Greens are also represented in the HDP. It is not only a Kurdish party”, Valero stated. In her view, the debate in the European Parliament on Wednesday evening is very important “because, in the Parliament, we speak a great deal about human rights, the importance of parliament, the freedom of expression and the media. At the Parliament, we are worried about all these steps backwards. Yet our governments look away because an agreement on migration is wanted”, she deplored.
Withdrawing the immunity collectively “seems medieval to me”, added Gomes, who experienced the dictatorship in Portugal. Everyone said they expected a strong message from the Parliament. For Eyyup Doru, the HDP representative responsible for relations with the EU institutions and who attended the press conference, “the government led by Erdogan is conducting a war that can be described as a crime against humanity” and “although the United Nations commissioner for human rights has called for an inquiry into the allegations of massacre - people burned alive - the Turkish government has not given its authorisation. It wants to hide these crimes against humanity. It will change the law to prevent the military being tried for crimes against humanity”, he said. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)