Report: Turkey's Pro-Kurdish Group To Boycott Parliament

Kurdish representative Hatip Dicle has been stripped of his parliament seat in Turkey.

Newly-elected Kurdish lawmakers have reportedly decided to boycott Turkey's parliament after one of them was stripped of his seat.

An official from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). which backed the lawmakers said the decision was expected to be formally announced later on June 23.

Hatip Dicle, one of 36 deputies backed by the BDP elected to parliament in the June 12 vote, was stripped of his seat after he lost an appeal against a prior conviction for spreading terrorist propaganda.

The BDP decision to boycott parliament could trigger a host of by-elections and raise tensions in Turkey's southeast area where Kurds are in the majority.

compiled from agency reports