Motions have been tabled in the Turkish parliament to lift the immunity of HDP members. There are five motions against Remziye Tosun alone. The Kurdish parliamentarian from Amed is threatened with ten years in prison.
Ten motions to lift the immunity of six members of parliament have been submitted to the Speaker’s Office of the Turkish National Assembly. Five of the motions concern the HDP politician Remziye Tosun, who was sentenced to ten years in prison in September. The others concerned are HDP MPs Fatma Kurtulan, Tülay Hatimoğulları, Abdullah Koç and Hasan Özgüneş and independent MP Mensur Işık, who was expelled from the HDP for violence against his wife.
Remziye Tosun: Survivors of the siege of Sur
Remziye Tosun is a survivor of the Turkish military siege between 2015 and 2016 in Sur, the historic old district of Amed (Diyarbakir). For three months, the mother of four children endured attacks by state security forces. When she was finally forced to leave Sur, she was arrested along with her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Beritan and nine other people for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization” and “armed attack on the constitutional order”. A membership investigation was also opened against her children.
After Remziye Tosun's arrest, three of her children were placed in a home. Only after strong protest were the children handed over to their grandmother's care. Remziye Tosun's husband was also arrested during the curfew in Sur and he is still in prison. She herself was released from prison in Amed after 15 months in May 2017 and was subject to reporting requirements.
During the curfew, the family's home in Sur was destroyed by government forces. Remziye Tosun moved back with her grandmother and her children to her birthplace, Remziye Tosun continued her political work after her release from prison. She initially worked as a cook at the HDP headquarters in Amed. In order to give a voice to all those affected by the destruction of Sur, she applied for a candidacy as a deputy. During her election campaign she met with great interest and was elected to fourth place on the HDP list in Amed. Remziye Tosun receives much support, especially from women.
The destruction of Sur
In November 2015, the destruction of Sur began with the declaration of a curfew. In the central district of Amed, which has a five-thousand-year history and is under UNESCO protection, self-government had been proclaimed shortly before. For more than three months, the people in the neighborhood resisted a barbaric concept of attack by the Turkish state. The destruction continues to this day and thousands of people have been displaced.
