ANKARA: Turkey’s parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary status on Thursday, further reducing the presence of the HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the general assembly. The government says the HDP is an affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency in the largely Kurdish southeast for more than three decades. The HDP denies direct links to the PKK. The move to strip Tugba Hezer and Faysal Sariyildiz of their status was read out in parliament after an appeal to remove their membership was submitted and voted on. The two were removed on grounds of “discontinuity”, or missing general assembly meetings, bringing the number of seats occupied by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to 55 in the 550-seat assembly. The HDP had 59 lawmakers elected to parliament in the November 2015 general election but has since lost four members. “This will go down as a battle for democracy, and in yours as a black stain. We will continue to make politics, whether in jail or in parliament,” said Filiz Kerestecioglu, a lawmaker for the HDP. In February, parliament stripped Figen Yuksekdag, one of the HDP’s two leaders, of her membership. Her co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was jailed, and Yuksekdag was subsequently replaced as co-chair. Nursel Aydogan, another HDP lawmaker, was also stripped of her parliamentary status in May because she faced charges including membership of a terrorist organisation. Published in Daily Times, July 28th , 2017.