Prosecutor’s Office Launches Probe Against BDP Congress
The Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office today launched an investigation against the organizing committee of the Peace and Democracy Party's (BDP) Second Extraordinary Congress. Committee members are now facing the charge of making terrorist propaganda, only a single day after the convention took place.
Prosecutor Kemal Çetin initiated the proceedings in view of "the slogans chanted in the congress and the posters and banners of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK,) which were unfurled in the meeting hall," according to the broadcasting station CNNTürk.
Yesterday's congress also witnessed the appointment of new members in place of party managers who were jailed as part of the government's crackdowns on the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK,) while Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak were again elected as the BDP's co-chairpersons.
Demirtaş had called upon the women of the party to take charge and apply for new positions, as the BDP is also facing the prospect of not being able to meet its 40 percent quota for women due to the disproportionately large number of its female members who went to jail.
"Everyone capable of assuming a position in the Party Assembly, the youth or women's [branches] must definitely apply and demand a post, as there is always something to do for everyone in our party, whether it be in the commissions or at the central [administration,]" Demirtaş had said on Tuesday's group meeting.
BDP's new face
The 80 members-strong Party Assembly thus came into being yesterday through the election of the following members:
Gültan Kışanak, Abdullah Kaya, Abdurrahim Atilla, Adil Kurt, Adnan Etli, Ali Damar, Ali Ürküt, Altan Tan, Arife Çınar, Ayhan Karabulut, Ayla Akat, Ayla Yıldırım, Cemil Elden, Cihan Sincar, Demir Çelik, Diren Yağan, Diyadin Fırat, Emir Ali Çelebi, Faruk Sağlam, Ferhat Encü, Ferhat Tarhan, Filiz Koçali, Gülçin İsbert, Güngör Alp, Hamit Geylani, Hasip Kaplan, Haydar Kılıçoğlu, Hayri Ateş, Hüseyin Dağ, Hüseyin Gevher, Hüseyin Gözen, Hüseyin Koçuk, Hüseyin Tanas, Hüseyin Altun, Hüseyin Güngör, İhsan Coşkun, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Peköz, Kenan Şen, Kibriye Evren, Kutbettin Saltan, M. Nezir Karabaş, M. Sıddık Akış, Mehmet Aslan, Mehmet Öcalan, Mehmet Ayhan, Mehmet Sait Üçlü, Mehmet Zekikoç, Meliha Varışlı, Memet Doymaz, Meral Danışbeştaş, Mihdi Perinçek, Mukkades Kubilay, Naile Bali, Nazmi Gür, Necla Yıldırım, Nezir Gülcan, Nimet Sezgin, Nuri Duman, Nursel Aydoğan, Osman Ergin, Özgür Sevgigöral, Pelin Yılmaz, Pınar Akdemir, Rabia Tekeş, Rahşan Engin, Ramazan Yıldız, Saadet Becerikli, Sebahat Tuncel, Selahattin Esmer, Sırrı Sever, Sinem Coşkun, Şaban Roşan Işıktaş, Şehbal Şenyurt Arınlı, Ulaş Koparan, Veli Büyükşahin, Veli Haydar Güleç, Yıldız Çelik, Yüksel Mutlu and Zarife Atik.
Zeki Çelik, Hüseyin Çalışçı, Hülya Ayhan Yaman, Emrullah Engin Akyürekli, Zeynep Bingöl, Songül Erol Abdil and Hasan Şahin were also elected to the BDP's Central Disciplinary Board.
The congress further saw the formation of the BDP's Academic Political Advisory Board through the election of the following members:
Sociologist and writer İsmail Beşikçi, Assoc. Prof. Fikret Başkaya, Lawyer Yusuf Alataş, researcher and writer Faik Bulut, politician Akın Birdal, Prof. Büşra Ersanlı., Prof. Nazan Üstündağ, Prof. Onur Hamzaoğlu, writer Kemal Parlak, writer Naci Kutlay, writer Ömer Ağın, former Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) deputy Tarık Ziya Ekinci, Lawyer Feridum Yazar, writer Erdoğan Aydın, writer Ayşegül Akış Devecioğlu. (AS)