HDP MP Gergerlioğlu sues Interior Minister Soylu for deeming May 14 elections ‘coup attempt’

Duvar English

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker and Green Left Party parliamentarian candidate Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu has filed a criminal complaint against Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu over the latter’s deeming the May 14 elections “coup attempt.”

Gergerlioğlu’s move was announced by the HDP’s official website on May 2. The statement said that Soylu had committed a crime as per the Turkish Penal Code’s Article 309/1 which reads as follows: “Any person who attempts to abolish, replace or prevent the implementation of, through force and violence, the constitutional order of the Republic of Turkey shall be sentenced to a penalty of aggravated life imprisonment.”

“The suspect who is the Interior Minister has clearly expressed that if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan loses the presidency and the (ruling Justice and Development Party) AKP and (Nationalist Movement Party) MHP lose the parliamentary majority, he would not accept the election results with regards to the president that will be elected other than Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and with regards to opposition parties that will get the parliamentary majority,” the statement read.

The statement also said that Soylu had committed the crime of “insulting the President” as he “showed the President as being involved in the political coup” for signing the decree for the elections to be held on May 14.

Last week, Soylu referred to the upcoming elections as the “West’s political coup attempt,” while speaking during a visit to an Islamic foundation.
 
Afterwards, he emphasized his stance once again in a tweet by writing: "July 15 was a de facto coup attempt. May 14, 2023 is the political coup attempt that can be initiated by bringing together each of the preparations to purge Turkey.”