“We are deprived of our citizenship for exposing the atrocities"

HDP’s Sarıyıldız, facing the threat of denaturalization, said: “They are doing this because we exposed the crime Erdoğan committed.” Former MP Üçer, under the same threat, said: “We will continue with the freedom struggle wherever we are.”

The discussions in the parliament regarding the denaturalization of opposition members outside Turkey have continued for a while, and have now reached an end. A notice published in the Official Gazzette today announces that 130 people including HDP MPs Faysal Sarıyıldız and Tuğba Hezer and former HDP MP Özdal Üçer will be denaturalized if they don’t return to Turkey in 3 months.

HDP Şırnak MP Faysal Sarıyıldız protested the decree and said that they are facing this situation because they exposed Erdoğan’s crimes in Cizre and Sur for the whole world to see.

“ERDOĞAN COMMITTED GREAT WAR CRIMES”

Sarıyıldız spoke to the ANF and said:

“The denaturalization decree is another step in the fascist AKP government institutionalizing their system. It has nothing to do with law, and everything to do with Erdoğan’s fears and paranoias. We are now faced with an Erdoğan who travels his own country’s skies escorted by fighter jets, who has the guns removed from soldiers he greets, who lives in fear - and his fascist practices. We are not really surprised by this decree. These practices had been in place for a while now. Cities in Kurdistan have been torn to the ground, the resisting children of the Kurdish people were burned to death en masse. Great war crimes were committed. Erdoğan, who has ordered so many crimes, gave this order to get away from a risk of being tried for war crimes. Because since I was given a duty by my party and went abroad, I have worked to expose the criminal record for the AKP.”

“AKP CAN’T STOP US WITH THIS DECREE”

Former HDP Van MP Özdal Üçer said: “This decree by the AKP is geared towards keeping us from the democracy and freedom struggle we are engaged in. This decree on us is political. Depriving us of our citizenship citing investigations as an excuse is just one of the hundreds of unlawful practices in Turkey. If they think they can stop our struggle with a threat of denaturalization, they are wrong. We will continue with the freedom struggle wherever we are.

Üçer stated that nobody is safe in Turkey with the AKP in power and added: “These conditions have forced tens of thousands of people to leave Turkey and flee to various countries in Europe and the world as refugees. These people are victimized.”

On returning to Turkey, Üçer said: “We will return to a free, democratic country. We will go back to a country where everybody lives under free, equal and democratic conditions, a country without AKP. Other than this, we do not accept any imposition by the AKP.”