HDP deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, who was forcibly detained in the Turkish parliament in Ankara early this morning wearing pajamas and slippers, has been released after his statement in the newly initiated investigation against him was recorded. The fact that the police used force during the arrest was not recorded in the minutes. His lawyers intend to appeal against this.

According to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the new investigation stems from a complaint filed by the General Secretariat of the Turkish Parliament. Gergerlioğlu had been holding a "justice vigil" at the HDP parliamentary group's premises since losing his deputy mandate on March 17, giving numerous interviews.

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu is Turkish and a doctor by profession. He has been involved in human rights for many years and has been an HDP deputy for the Kocaeli province since 2018. In February, a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence against him for a peace message that was interpreted as terror propaganda was upheld by the Court of Cassation. Gergerlioğlu then appealed to the Constitutional Court, and his case remains pending. On March 17, he was stripped of his seat as a deputy despite the ongoing proceedings.

Background

On August 20, 2016, almost two years before he became member of parliament, Gergerlioğlu tweeted and commented on a news story briefly reporting that the leadership of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq had called on the Turkish state to take a step towards peace. The news story also carried a lengthy response to the PKK call by Bülent Arinç, then the speaker of the parliament and former deputy prime minister.

Gergerlioğlu said that, “This [the PKK’s] call should be properly considered, there’s no end to the issue…!” (Bu çağrı hakkıyla değerlendirilmeli, bu işin sonu yok…!), making the argument that there should be a renewed peace process to end the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK. Gergerlioglu was convicted for this tweet sharing the news article and its accompanying photograph of PKK fighters.

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