Leyla Zana

Five lawmakers in the Turkish parliament are facing the risk of being stripped of their statuses as members of parliament in the new legislative year, set to kick off on Oct. 1.

A draft bylaw debated at the Constitutional Commission of the parliament has stirred a debate between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition, the Republican People's Party (CHP), saying that the proposal will turn deputyship into an idle post.

Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı deputy Leyla Zana was acquitted of three separate charges directed at her as a part of a terror investigation on July 11.

The Turkish Parliament is attempting to pass an internal rule according to which any MP using the term “Kurdistan” in the country’s national assembly should be be fined. The draft proposal has been approved by the ruling pro-Erdogan AKP party and its nationalist coalition partner MHP. The proposed changes would also ban MPs who abstain from taking the oath of parliamentary privileges.

Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı deputy Leyla Zana was released after being detained by police on Feb. 8 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı deputy Leyla Zana was detained on Feb. 8 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Zana had served 10 years in prison for speaking Kurdish while taking her parliamentary oath in 1991. She was ultimately released in 2004 and once again became an MP after the June 2011 elections.

A co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the main target of a government-led provisional change in the constitution that would allow parliament to lift legislative immunities, has vowed to not "voluntarily" comply with any possible legal call for prosecution.

Cracks have emerged within the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) over a decision to lend support to a government proposal on a provisional change in the constitution that would allow parliament to lift the immunities of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers and others for one time only.

The attendance of Western diplomats at the Can Dündar-Erdem Gül hearing on March 25 apparently raised so many eyebrows that President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an even complained about them during his visit to the war academy, where he was addressing officers. But then again, this may be another game he is playing. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said on Jan. 29 that he would not meet with Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Leyla Zana unless she takes her oath in parliament, saying that such a meeting would not be held over the living conditions of the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).