Turkey detains pro-Kurdish lawmaker

Turkey's security forces on Friday detained a pro-Kurdish lawmaker who was pictured posing with rebel fighters waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Peoples's Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Semra Guzel was arrested while travelling "with a fake passport" in northwestern Turkey.

Parliament stripped Guzel of immunity from prosecution after pro-government media published photographs of her posing with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

This is HDP lawmaker Semra Guzel and a PKK fighter who was reportedly killed by Turkish army in 2017.

Turkish media claims that the man was Guzel's fiance and these photos were taken nearly a decade ago during the peace process.

An indictment has been prepared against Guzel. pic.twitter.com/gi5gcGcMg9

— Karwan Faidhi Dri (@KarwanFaidhiDri) January 11, 2022

The Turkish Parliament is planning to lift the immunity of Semra Guzel, a lawmaker HDP, in preparation for prosecution over an old photo - of her with Volkan Bora.
Why did #Turkey - allow KCK/PKK form a political (non violent) wing in the first place? 🤔#TurkeyIsATerrorState pic.twitter.com/htLFsZt73U

— 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢 (@MArizanti) January 11, 2022

The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.

But rights group accuse Ankara of grossly violating the rights of peaceful Kurds while fighting the insurgents across southeastern Turkey and northern parts of Syria and Iraq.

The Turkish government views the HDP as the political wing of the PKK fighters and has launched legal proceedings that could see the party either banned or stripped of its state funding.

The HDP denies formal ties with the insurgents.

But many of its members either personally know outlawed rebels or refuse to publically condemn their guerrilla tactics.

The HDP has already seen scores of its current and former members arrested in a government crackdown that followed a failed coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016.

Guzel has previously explained that she was engaged to one of the PKK fighters she was pictured with in northern Iraq nearly 10 years ago.

But she argued that she was not a member of any political party at the time.