Kurdish party co-chair loses her seat in Turkish parliament

Published February 23, 2017

The state-run news agency says the co-chair of Turkey's pro-Kurdish party has lost her seat in parliament after an appeals court upheld her conviction on terrorism-related charges.

The Anadolu Agency says Tuesday that Figen Yuksekdag, co-chair of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, lost her seat over her conviction in 2013 for engaging in terrorist propaganda.

The move comes amid what critics say is the government's widening crackdown on opposition and dissenting voices and as Turkey is heading toward a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

Yuksekdag, HDP's co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, and 11 other party legislators were arrested in November over terror charges.

The party has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the legislators' release, so they can campaign ahead of the referendum.

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