HDP deputies leave parliament in protest at President Erdoğan

ANKARA

AA photo

Turkey’s parliament hosted a collective protest by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as the national assembly gathered for its procedural opening ceremony on Oct. 1.

HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were not present at the session, which began with introductory remarks by Parliament Speaker İsmet Yılmaz. As Yılmaz presented Erdoğan’s entrance in the general assembly hall, the HDP deputies in the hall refused to stand up, as required by custom, and when Erdoğan began delivering his speech all HDP deputies present left the hall in a show of protest. 

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli were also not present at the gathering. 

Kılıçdaroğlu had already stated that he would be traveling to Lyon in France on Oct. 1 as part of his election campaign and would therefore not be able to attend parliament’s opening ceremony. 

The leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded by Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly meeting, made it to the opening after departing from the U.S. early on Oct. 1.