An investigation has been launched against an ex-Turkish official for meeting with President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. As reports Turkey’s oppositional Cumhuriyet newspaper, former head of the Sur District of Diyarbakir (2004-14) Abdullah Demirbas is charged with meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia “without receiving permission from the government”, writes ermenihaber.am.

On August 4, 2015, Demirbas was a member of the Turkish delegation visiting Armenia at the invitation of Serzh Sargsyan. The delegation comprised the leaders of Turkey’s Kurdish oppositional Democratic Party of Nations (HDP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Prepared within the scope of the investigation and released on 27 January2016, the inspectional report particularly states that Demirbas and the HDP/BDP delegation on 4 August 2016 left for Armenia and met with the President of the Republic of Armenia, for which his official advancement must be suspended for a 3-year period and for which he must be fined.

It has been proposed to set a warning and fine or Demirbas, who concurrently teaches, since he hadn’t informed the principal of the school (his workplace) when leaving the country.

In his defense speech, Demirbas noted that he had left for Armenia during his summer vacation, meaning there was no need to inform the principal of the school. He viewed the charge as a violation of “the freedom to travel and human rights”.

Demirbas informed that Serzh Sargsyan had invited him to come as the former head of the Sur District and emphasized that meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia has never been considered an offense in accordance with Turkish legislation.

The former official said he had also met with the Pope of Rome three times and had had meetings with US Congressmen, as well as the high-ranking officials of other counties and former President of Turkey Abdullah Gul several times. He emphasized that there is no legal restriction on a meeting with any state official.

According to Demirbas, if his arguments and self-defense don’t lead to the outcome that is necessary and Turkish law-enforcement authorities don’t annul the punishment that he might face, then his next step will be to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).