Erdogan calls imprisoned Kurdish leader Demirtas 'terrorist'

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday
called the imprisoned co-leader of his country’s pro-Kurdish party Selahattin
Demirtas a “terrorist,” despite an ongoing judicial process.
At a press conference in the German city of Hamburg
where Erdogan was attending a G20 summit, a reporter asked him when the
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Demirtas and other Kurdish lawmakers
would be released from jail.
“Turkey is a country of law. The person you are
talking about is a terrorist,” said Erdogan in his remarks carried on
Kurdistan24 TV about the leader of the second largest opposition block at the
Turkish Parliament.
“I do not have the authority to release terrorists
from prison,” Erdogan continued about Demirtas who Turkish prosecutors have
asked up to 142 years of imprisonment.
“It’s up to the judiciary. We will welcome with
great pleasure whatever the judiciary decides,” added Erdogan.
In response, the HDP headquarters released a
statement on its website condemning Erdogan’s rhetoric “in the strongest terms
possible.”
It refused to call Erdogan the President, referring
to him as the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) only.
“Demirtas is the representative of millions [of
people]. He is a lawmaker and once an honorable presidential candidate [in
2014],” read the statement.
The HDP accused Erdogan of openly interfering with
judicial processes, dictating members of judiciary what decisions to make, and
threatening the Constitutional Court.
“Erdogan’s saying ‘Turkey is a country of law’ and
alleging that judiciary is independent one minute before labeling Demirtas a
terrorist are lies,” said the HDP.
“History will prove who the terrorist is,” the HDP
statement continued, promising to politically and legally challenge Erdogan’s
remarks.
Demirtas rose to prominence in June 2015 elections
with his success of garnering 13 percent of votes for the HDP.
The pro-Kurdish party’s winning 80 seats in the
Parliament effectively denied Erdogan’s ruling AKP a super majority required to
form a one-party government.
Police detained Demirtas and a dozen other Kurdish
lawmakers in midnight house raids in November 2016.
The Kurdish leader has previously said he was a
“hostage” because of his stance against what he described as Erdogan’s plans of
forging “a one-man rule” in Turkey.
Erdogan views the HDP as the political front for the
banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that is waging a decades-long guerrilla
warfare against Turkish troops over government repression of Kurdish rights.