The Turkish parliament on Tuesday stripped two more MPs from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of their mandates, the party said, in the latest blow to the embattled pro-Kurdish faction.
The government accuses the HDP of being a political wing of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged an over three decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The HDP denies the charges.The deputy head of the HDP's parliamentary faction Ahmet Yildirim and fellow MP Ibrahim Ayhan had their lawmaker status taken away from them at a plenary session of parliament, the party said in a statement.
Yildirim's loss of mandate was due to a criminal charge of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by using the term "caricature of a sultan", while Ayhan is charged with making "terror propaganda" after praising a Kurdish anti-jihadist fighter.
HDP parliamentary faction chief Filiz Kerestecioglu described the decision as "shameful", saying the country was in the throes of a "civilian coup".
Former party leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag are among nine HDP MPs currently in jail on charges of links to the PKK which they deny.
A total of nine HDP lawmakers have been stripped of their mandates, including some of those jailed. In total, only 46 of the 59 HDP deputies elected in the last 2015 polls can carry out their duties in parliament.
The HDP emerged as the third largest party in parliament after the 2015 elections but analysts say in the current circumstances it will struggle to top the 10 percent threshold needed to have MPs in parliament at the next 2019 polls.