VAN –HDP Urfa MP Osman Baydemir has been expulsed from parliament for two sessions and fined 12,000 TL for saying ‘Kurdistan’ during the budget debate of the parliament. “Denying Kurdistan is denying the presence of the Kurds” said HDP Van MP Bedia Özgökçe Ertan while talking about the issue. 

 

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ayşenur Bahçekapılı expulsed the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) MP Osman Baydemir from parliament for two sessions and fined him 12,000 TL for saying “Kurdistan” during the budget debate of the Turkish Grand National Assembly within the scope of Article 163 of the internal regulation. HDP Van MP Bedia Özgökçe Ertan reacted to the racist approach towards the use of the Kurdistan word and she said, “Those who see the Kurdistan word as illegal cannot ignore the reality of Kurdistan.” 

 

“There is a region called Kurdistan just as a region called Thrace. Do they play a trick on the people by reserving the history?” asked Bedia and she added, “The AKP and MHP disrespect to the history, they disrespect to the peoples of the Kurdistan.” 

 

‘Erdoğan himself said Kurdistan’ 

 

Expressing that finding the Kurdistan word contrary to the internal regulation represents the repressive mindset towards beliefs and freedoms of all peoples, Bedia recalled that “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the term Kurdistan many times in 1990s and in 2013. Tayyip Erdoğan said Kurdistan many times during his party meeting in order to respond the CHP and MHP and he also explained why Kurdistan word should be used. Everyone knows why the internal regulation has been changed. They formed a counter-front in order to isolate the HDP from the people they represent. Denying Kurdistan is denying the presence of the Kurds. There is a very serious attack on the Kurds' most fundamental rights. This is a policy. We don’t accept this sick approach.”