Imprisoned Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP) MP Can Atalay began a 24-hour hunger strike yesterday, Thursday 1 October, the day the new parliamentary session opened, declaring that “the situation has now reached breaking point”. The MP elected in the province of Hatay remains in Silivri prison.

TİP boycotted the opening session, while MPs from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party placed photographs of Atalay on the seats during a speech by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş. DEM co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said that on the day Parliament opened, Can Atalay’s place should have been in his seat.

“Yet, despite the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court, he remains in prison,” she added.

The Social Freedom Party, represented in Parliament by Perihan Koca, also boycotted the session. Koca said: “Erdoğan has no legitimacy.”

Reactions against Erdoğan

The opening of Parliament was also accompanied by opposition protests against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel left the chamber during Erdoğan’s speech, protesting against the imprisonment of Ekrem İmamoğlu.

“We have no time to waste listening to someone who carried out a judicial coup against our party, imprisoned our presidential candidate and launched an operation against the mayor of Mersin just this morning,” he said.

CHP parliamentary group deputy chair Sevda Erdan Kılıç also announced that the party would not attend the evening reception, in protest.