The announcement sent shock waves through the opposition and sparked new and deep concern within the Turkish rights community. In a gesture akin to a presidential oukase on the part of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the parliamentary group of his party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has decided to strip MP Can Atalay of his mandate.
Member of the Turkish Workers’ Party (TIP), elected in May 2023 while he was in prison, this 47-year-old left-wing lawyer, known for his eloquence and his struggles with workers, had for several months been at the heart of an unprecedented judicial crisis opposing two of the highest courts in the country: the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation.
The decision, read on Tuesday January 30 from the perch of the hemicycle by the vice-president of Parliament, Bekir Bozdag, provoked a vast protest movement, with dozens of deputies rushing to the desk. Under the boos of the opposition, several elected officials brandished signs calling for “liberation of Can Atalay”. A small copy of the Constitution was even thrown at the vice-president before he closed the session.
President of TIP, Erkan Bas qualified the dismissal of the elected official “not only irregular, but also illegal” : “We are witnessing the completion of a coup attempt that tramples the Constitution. »
Parliamentary immunity
“Black day for democracy”, immediately headlined the website of the independent daily BirGün. For Ahmet Davutoglu, Mr. Erdogan’s former prime minister, who moved to the opposition, the approach of the majority’s elected representatives has just brought Turkey into the “in the bottleneck of a legal system closed in on itself”. The very evening of the announcement, several hundred demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, in the rain, at the call of the TIP and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The latter calling for a big march “constitutional” next week.
Sentenced in April 2022 to 18 years in prison, Can Atalay was accused of having sought, with the philanthropist Osman Kavala – sentenced to “aggravated life” – to overthrow the government in 2013 through an unprecedented wave of demonstrations which had pushed 3.5 million people into the streets against the authoritarianism of Mr. Erdogan and his government. The lawyer has continued to reject these accusations, calling the trial a travesty of justice and an elementary violation of the rules of law.
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