Pro-Kurdish Turkish Rights Activist and Politician Released from Prison

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu. Photo: Gergerlioglu's personal archieve

"We are right, we are strong and we will win. We have won with resistance." Gergerlioglu said defiantly at a press conference held at the HDP headquarters in Ankara on Tuesday night.

The court decision came five days after Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that his rights to be elected, engage in political activity and personal freedoms and security had been violated.

The top court's ruling also paved the way for him to regain his parliamentary status. The ruling will be sent to parliament, where he is expected to have a second swearing-in ceremony in the near future.

A court jailed Gergerlioglu in March for two years and six months "for making propaganda for a terrorist organisation" after he retweeted a news article in 2016.

The news article he had shared was about negotiations between the Turkish government and the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK. The article had called on the government to start a new peace process.

Following the jail sentence, approved by the Court of Cassations, Gergerlioglu had his parliamentary status revoked on March 17 and was arrested at his home on April 2.

"Belatedly, Gergerlioglu is about to be released from jail days after Turkey's Constitutional Court found his right to be elected and engage in political activities, and his right to liberty had been violated. He belongs in parliament, not prison," Emma Sinclair-Webb, Director of Human Rights Watch for Europe and Central Asia, said on Twitter.

Pressure on the HDP and other Kurdish groups has intensified in recent years as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's crackdown on political opponents. Dozens of HDP MPs, including its former leaders,...