Turkey's parliament on Tuesday stripped a jailed opposition lawmaker of his parliamentary term following a court ruling, further complicating an unprecedented clash between two of the country's highest courts.
Can Atalay, 47, was elected to parliament last May as a representative of the Turkish Workers' Party (TIP), an ally of the major pro-Kurdish party DEM, while serving an 18-year prison sentence.
He was sentenced in April 2022 after being found guilty of trying to overthrow the government on suspicion of organizing nationwide protests in 2013, along with six other people and Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, who is also in prison.
All the defendants denied the charges against them. The protests marked the biggest challenge for Mr. Tayyip Erdogan during his two decades in power, first as prime minister and then as president.
Mr. Atalay managed to run in the parliamentary elections in May after the highest court of Turkey, the Court of Cassation, did not uphold his conviction. But the court decided in September to uphold his sentence, complicating the case.
Turkey's Constitutional Court then ruled, twice, in October and December, that his imprisonment violated Mr. Atalay's right to be elected. But the Court of Cassation refused his release in both cases, on the grounds that the Constitutional Court's decision was unconstitutional, a move that sparked a judicial crisis.
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Bekir Bozdag, a member of Mr. Erdogan's ruling party, announced on Tuesday that the Court of Cassation upheld Mr. Atalay's conviction, paving the way for him to be stripped of his mandate as a member of parliament.
The chairman of Mr. Atalay's party, Erkan Bas, described the Court of Cassation's decision as “unconstitutional” and said parliament had also violated the constitution by stripping jailed lawmakers of their mandates. Other opposition parties also criticized the decision.
Mr Erdogan has previously called for a new constitution to resolve the clash between Turkey's highest courts, but his party has not come up with any proposals on the matter.