28 December 2015•Update: 29 December 2015
ANKARA
The Ankara prosecutor's office on Monday said it had launched a probe against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas over his remarks on autonomy in the southeast and "his call during October protests".
On Sunday, the HDP called for the formation of "democratic autonomous regions" in Turkey's southeast as one of its 14 items in the final declaration of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) in Diyarbakir province.
Demirtas will also be investigated for his alleged instigation of Kurdish protests in October 2014 over what was considered by some as the Turkish government's inaction in the advance of Daesh militants in the Syrian town of Kobani, predominantly populated by Kurds.
More than 30 people were killed in protests across Turkey in October 2014.
The probe comes under the crimes against constitutional order statute of the Turkish Penal Code.
Earlier on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized the HDP over the calls for regional autonomy.
Meanwhile, Diyarbakir chief public prosecutor’s office said on Monday that it had launched an investigation into remarks made by six people including Demirtas at Sunday's congress.
Along with Demirtas, co-chair of the Democratic Regions’ Party, or DBP, Kamuran Yuksek, DTK co-chairs Hatip Dicle and Selma Irmak as well as HDP lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder and the spokeswoman of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress Sebahat Tuncel are accused of “making terrorist propaganda”, “inciting to commit a crime”, “encouraging people to riot”, as well as “disrupt the unity and territorial integrity of the state”.
The prosecutor’s office said that it would apply to the Ministry of Justice to lift the parliamentary immunity of three lawmakers: Demirtas, Irmak, and Onder.
