PACE on Conviction of Honorary Member Kürkçü: ‘Turkey Should Reconsider Ruling’

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Parlimentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee has criticized the two years of aggravated prison sentence given to Ertuğrul Kürkçü, PACE Honorary Member and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Honorary Chair.

PACE Watch Committee Turkey Co-reporters Marianne Mikko (Estonia, Socialist Group) and Nigel Evans (United Kingdom, European Conservatives) have said that they are "deeply concerned by the two years prison sentence given to Ertuğrul Kürkçü because of his speech at the Newroz celebrations in 2016" in a declaration they published yesterday (December 20).

CLICK- HDP Honorary Chair Kürkçü Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison

"We expect the Turkish authorities to ensure Mr. Kürkçü's freedom of expression is duly guaranteed by the Turkish justice system, taking into account the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights," the co-reporters said in the statement.

"The Assembly is fiercely attached to the protection of freedom of expression, which is at the very heart of the exercise of our parliamentary mandates. We will therefore follow with great attention Mr. Kürkçü's appeal trial. Again, we urge the Turkish authorities, especially the Turkish justice system, to abide by their Council of Europe obligations and to re-consider this judgment," they added.

'Turkey should respect European norms'

Frank Schwabe, the Chair of the Socialist Group in PACE also condemned the prison sentence given to Kürkçü.

He said on his Twitter account yesterday:

"The judgment against Ertuğrul is obviously politically motivated and incompatible with the standards of a constitutional state. It is really absurd to sentence a Member of Parliament for what his job is, for expressing one's own political position in his speeches."

Schwabe has also called Turkey to respect the statutory norms of the Council of Europe: 

"I demand the repeal of the judgment, the re-establishment of fundamental principles of the rule of law in Turkey and the respect for the statutory norms of the Council of Europe, to which Turkey has commits itself by its membership."

Kürkçü: I did my duty as an MP

HDP Honorary Chair Ertuğrul Kürkçü was sentenced to two years in prison on December 18, due to the speech that he made during Newroz celebrations in Iğdır in 2016. The verdict that was given by the 1st Heavy Penal Court of Iğdır province will be considered by the Court of Appeal.

Kürkçü said in his defense that it is "his duty as an MP" to "protect the rights of the people, opposing the rights violations committed by the security forces, defending solution against conflict." He also said, "As an MP, I did my duty. I can only be honored because of that."

Honorary member of PACE

Kürkçü was in the PACE Turkey Delegation between 2011 and 2013 as an MP of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and between 2015 and 2018 as an MP of the HDP. He was also a member of the United European Left (UEL) group in the PACE. He also served as the Vice Chair of the PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development and Spokesperson of the UEL at the general assemblies of PACE.

Kürkçü's membership of PACE ended in 2018 after he did not stand for the June elections in Turkey. PACE Presidency decided to declare him as an honorary member in October. (AH/EKN/VK)