The All Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan in Syria and Turkey over the last 9 months have conducted an inquiry into ‘Kurdish Political Representation and Equality in Turkey’. The report was conducted with a number of colleagues across the house including Conservative member Crispin Blunt MP who has acted as my co-chair.
We conducted three oral evidence sessions which included evidence from both The Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) politicians as well several Kurdish woman’s, journalist and cultural organisations in Turkey. We also sort comment from the Turkish Ambassador here in London which we have included in the report.
It is the strong position of the APPG that the treatment of the Kurdish population and of elected representatives is one of the greatest threats to democracy in Turkey and the wider region. Repression of elected representatives from the pro-Kurdish HDP party includes actions such as removal from office, bringing charges of terrorism-based offences, and imprisonment and torture has now started to expand to CHP (the centre-left party that founded modern Turkey). These instances of repression and violence exacerbate the conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish groups. As the repression of democratically elected representatives has increased in severity, the violence directed at Kurdish civil society has also become more pronounced.
The APPG has agreed 32 recommendation for the UK Government which we have written to the Foreign Secretary seeking a response.
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