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Pro-Kurdish HDP leader kicked out of Turkish parliament

In Turkey’s latest salvo against the pro-Kurdish bloc, the parliament has expelled Peoples’ Democratic Party co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, who remains in jail with fellow leader Selahattin Demirtas and at least nine other HDP deputies while the ruling party continues its legal assaults ahead of the presidential referendum.
A supporter holds a portrait of Figen Yuksekdag, detained co-leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) at a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, on November 8, 2016.
The arrest of 10 of the HDP MPs, including party leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, added to tensions as Turkey wages a relentless battle against Kurdish militants and deals with the aftermath of a July 15 failed coup. / AFP / ADEM ALTAN        (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty

Turkey’s beleaguered pro-Kurdish bloc was dealt a further blow Feb. 21 when the parliament stripped its imprisoned co-leader of her seat. An appeals court upheld Figen Yuksekdag's conviction of spreading terrorist propaganda.

Yuksekdag and fellow co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas remain in jail together with at least nine other HDP deputies — their numbers keep fluctuating — on a wide array of often sketchily constructed terror charges. Yuksekdag lost her seat because she attended the funeral of a left-wing militant deemed to be a terrorist.

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