In Friday’s vote, 376 MPs voted to approve the bill, which was introduced by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and aims to lift the immunities of mainly pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MPs.
Friday’s vote surpassed the minimum 367 required to pass the bill without going to a referendum.
The bill was backed by from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has accused HDP parliamentarians of violating the Turkish constitution by advocating for autonomy for Kurds in Turkey in the midst of a reignited war between Turkey and the PKK.
Erdogan has also accused HDP of being a political wing of the PKK, an outlawed organization in Turkey.
Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of HDP, has denied Erdogan’s accusations and has accused Erdogan of trying to remove the opposition in order to manipulate parliamentary numbers and gain the support he needs to amend the constitution, putting more power into his own hands.
Demirtas also warned that approving this bill would be denying the Kurdish minority access to democracy, which would result in disillusionment in political processes and a negotiated peace.
"Democratic political channels in Turkey are already in great difficulty, and if the bill passes, many people will feel that these channels have been shut completely," warned co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas when parliament was debating the bill. "The belief in democracy and politics of peace will drop to zero.”
Erdogan hailed Friday’s vote as “historic,” saying “My people do not want to see guilty lawmakers in this parliament.”
Kati Piri, Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for Turkey to the EU, responded to Erdogan, calling the vote a “’Historic’ mistake!”
“Dark days in Turkey,” Piri warned on Twitter. “Silencing elected MPs of the opposition HDP is a major leap away from democratic standards.”
Filiz Kerestecioğlu, a HDP MP, said “You’re approving a coup d’etat. That’s how history will remember you. So be it. But we’ll be remembered as the women of resistance.”
A similar move to strip immunity of pro-Kurdish parliamentarians 22 years ago led to some of the worst violence in the decades’ long conflict between the PKK and Turkey.
In March 1994, a group of lawmakers were stripped of their immunity after speaking Kurdish in the Turkish parliament. Several were charged with treason and separatism for collaboration with the PKK. Four MPs spent a decade in prison.
The same month, at its national conference, the PKK declared “all economic, political, military, social and cultural organizations, institutions, formations – and those who serve them, have become targets.”
