IPU welcomes political agreement on greater protection for Turkish MPs

Turkish MP Mustafa Balbay addresses Parliament. He and other six parliamentarians elected in June 2011 whilst in detention have been able to take their oath of office after being provisionally released by the Constitutional Court. ©Reuters/Umit Bektas

IPU has welcomed the agreement reached this week by Turkey’s three main political parties to amend the national Constitution to more clearly define when an elected official can be prosecuted or imprisoned.

The agreement envisages broadening safeguards for members of parliament (MPs) and resolving the situation of several jailed elected representatives.

IPU believes the establishment of a multi-party commission in charge of drafting the Constitutional changes is an important step forward in allowing MPs to exercise their right to represent those who elected them.

“This is a promising and positive development by the Turkish political parties that will provide both greater protection for parliamentarians and strengthen confidence in the electorate that their chosen representatives in parliament are able to do their work,” says IPU Secretary General Anders B. Johnsson.

The agreement follows the unprecedented decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court to provisionally release seven MPs that were elected to parliament in June 2011 whilst in detention. The Court ruled that the length of their detentions amounted to a violation of their right to stand for election.

The seven MPs, five men and two women, have been held in pre-trial detention for several years for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government or for alleged membership of a group with links to the banned Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK. As a result, they have been prevented from taking up their parliamentary duties.

Five of them, Selma Irmak, Faysal Sariyildiz, Gulser Yildirim and Ibrahim Ayhan (members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, BDP) and Independent MP Kemal Aktas were sworn into parliament on 7 January after being granted provisional release last week. A trial is on-going and is expected to conclude in the course of 2014.

Another two MPs, Mustafa Balbay and Mehmet Haberal from the opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, have also taken up their seats in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly following the ruling of the Constitutional Court. They were handed down lengthy jail sentences in August 2013 and filed appeals which are still pending.

IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians has been working to resolve these and other cases in Turkey involving MPs prosecuted on conspiracy charges or for being members of pro-Kurdish independence groups.

An on-site mission to Turkey by the IPU Committee is due to take place in late February to follow up on the cases. The Organization has raised concerns at the lack of respect of MPs’ right to a fair trial, the alleged fabrication of some of the evidence and the excessive length of proceedings and pre-trial detention.