Turkish parliament. Photo: Reuters
ANKARA,— Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law that will allow the release of tens of thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding in jails and protect detainees from the coronavirus, but which critics slam for excluding those jailed on terrorism charges.
President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party and nationalist MHP allies supported the bill, which was accepted with 279 votes for and 51 votes against, deputy parliament speaker Sureyya Sadi Bilgic said.
The bill excludes people jailed on terrorism charges in a post-coup crackdown and Kurdish political prisoners with alleged links to PKK.
Tens of thousands of civil servants, judiciary officials, military personnel, journalists and politicians have been jailed in the crackdown.
Around 50,000 people, including the former head of the second-largest opposition party, a prominent journalist and a philanthropist, are excluded from the new law because they are charged with or convicted on terrorism charges, according to an opposition parliamentarian.
Selahattin Demirtas, Turkey’s top Kurdish politician and former head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has been in jail for some 3-1/2 years, accused of several charges including alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK which is considered by Turkey as “terrorist” organization..
His lawyer said Demirtas, 46, is at high risk from COVID-19 because he has high blood pressure and has undergone surgery for respiratory problems.
Turkish authorities removed 31 Kurdish mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) last year over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), just months after they won local elections in March.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
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