Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-06-08-Speech-3-856-000"
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"en.20160608.63.3-856-000"2
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"Mr President, stripping parliamentary immunity from politicians facing criminal investigation is usually something we would welcome in a democracy such as this House. Unfortunately, in this case, the proceedings appear to be politically motivated – a kind of collective punishment primarily aimed at weakening the Kurdish-majority HDP. President Erdoğan sees them as proxies for the PKK fighting in South-East Turkey.
Mr Erdoğan also seems intent on acquiring unchecked presidential powers to match the magnificence of his newly constructed, sultanesque palace. In order to reach the all-crucial number of 367 seats that are required to amend the Constitution without a referendum, he is pulling out all of the stops he can. Having dispensed with his unruly Prime Minister, he is now focusing on support outside of his AK Party. As Bahçeli support within his own nationalist MHP party is waning after 20 years as leader, Erdoğan now appears to have made a deal with his former rival, using the apparatus of the state to support Bahçeli’s leadership in exchange for his support in the Grand Assembly. Democracy and the rule of law are now under threat in Turkey, and this is just the latest move in a bigger game to undermine those values for Erdogan’s AK, neo-Islamist, autocratic agenda.
Turkey clearly has enormous value to the EU as a candidate country. It is a NATO ally and a necessary partner in the deal to stem the flow of refugees from the Syrian conflict, but Erdoğan is turning his country into one far from the secular democracy of 20 years ago, and we should all be very alarmed by that."@en1
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