Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Pervin Buldan has insisted on attending PKK terrorist funerals, in fact she encouraged all deputies to do the same.
Commenting on the controversial attendance of four HDP deputies at various funerals held for killed PKK terrorists, Buldan on Saturday said that it is the duty of each and every HDP deputy to be present at the funerals.
"We do not accept the rapid opening of the inquiry into the four deputies elected from the HDP. Our friends went to the funerals. This is something that takes place in our culture. It is our greatest duty and responsibility to go to the families of our people who have lost their lives. We will continue to be with those families even for whatever reason they have lost their lives," she said.
Buldan was referring to PKK terrorists killed by Turkish security forces. Batman's Chief Prosecutor's Office launched a probe on Friday against HDP lawmakers, Feleknas Uca and Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, over "making propaganda for a terror group," after the two attended the funeral of a PKK terrorist.
The HDP lawmakers attended the funeral of Devran Baysal, also known by his code name Simko Kerboran, one of the terrorists killed during a counterterrorism operation in southeastern Hakkari region on July 8. Uca and Tiryaki attended the funeral of the PKK terrorist in Batman and carried the terrorist's coffin on their shoulders.
Also last week, an investigation was launched on HDP lawmakers Musa Farisoğulları and Remziye Tosun who also attended the funeral of a PKK terrorist. The terrorist in question was accused of killing 15-year-old civilian Eren Bülbül last August in Maçka, Trabzon. He was in the red category of Turkey's most wanted terrorists list for many of his terrorist activities.
The HDP is a party that arguably has failed to deliver its promise of being a party for the whole of Turkey. Since the summer of 2015 when the PKK broke a cease-fire with the Turkish state unilaterally, the HDP has failed to put distance between itself and the PKK, abstaining from condemning the acts of the terrorist group against Turkish security forces and civilians.
One of the most controversial of all was the attendance of then HDP Deputy Tuba Hezer at the funeral of a suicide bomber who killed many civilians in the capital city of Ankara. Hezer attended the funeral and was a pallbearer for a terrorist who perpetrated the Ankara car bombing on Feb. 17, 2016, which killed 28 people, mostly civilians, and wounded 61.
Even though the West whitewashes the activities of the HDP, calling it a party for peace, its close links to the PKK are reminiscent of the links of the banned Spanish party Batasuna. It was a Basque nationalist party based mainly in Spain that was banned in 2003 after a strongly contested court ruling declared that the party was financing the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) with public money.
A Batasuna deputy attending a terrorist funeral and spreading the propaganda of the ETA was deemed by the Supreme Court of Spain as acts threatening democratic society.
The PKK is jointly considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and Turkey.
So far, 13 HDP lawmakers have been arrested, and 10 of them, including former HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, remain under arrest awaiting trial on charges related to being members or leaders of and committing crimes for the PKK.
The two incidents last week were not the first. Previously, then HDP Deputy Leyla Birlik attended the funeral of a member of the PKK terrorist group in southeastern Diyarbakır province in November 2017.
Another one was in September 2016. Then HDP Diyarbakir deputies Sibel Yiğitalp and Feleknas Uca were at t burial of Baran Kaval, another PKK terrorist killed by Turkish security forces.
Also in August 2015, Ziya Çalışkan, who was a deputy from southeastern Şanlıurfa province, attended the funeral ceremony for PKK terrorist Ali Baybariz, who attacked a police station in Adana.
"Each martyr that we bury is an oath and vow for us," Çalışkan said, calling the terrorist a "martyr."