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Turkey’s main Kurdish party attempts to avoid ban

 
Democratic Society Party (DTP) representative asks court not to ban his party from Turkish politics · Turkey’s Chief Prosecutor believes the only Kurdish party with seats in the Turkish Parliament is ‘a focal point of separatist activities’ with links to the PKK and wants it shut down.

Since November 2007 the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the main Kurdish party and the only one with seats in the Turkish parliament, has faced a legal battle launched by the country's Chief Prosecutor, who wants the group banned for threatening the sovereignty of the Turkish state and for its links to the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), the armed organization fighting for Kurdish independence.

Last week, the co-president of DTP, Ahmet Türk, presented his party's final defence at the Constitutional Court, arguing that any decision should "take into account the European Human Rights Court (EHRC) and the Venice Convention", which states that a party can only be banned if it uses violence.

Türk emphasized the need to keep open a viable political route: "when you close the door to democracy, people who believe in democratic politics lose all hope. If a party backed by two million voters is closed, the hopes of all these people will be shattered".

Turkish Daily News reports that, in response to the alleged links to the PKK, Türk said that there was no "organic connection" with the armed organization but declared that his party adopts Abdullah Öcalan's "political, pacifist and democratic" approach. Öcalan, a renowned Kurdish fighter and the founder of the PKK, was found guilty of acts of terrorism and jailed in 1999. Since his capture, he has campaigned for a non-violent resolution to the Kurdish conflict.

DTP currently has 24 members of parliament in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, although they had to stand as independent candidates due to threshold rules. Every Kurdish party formed in Turkey since the 1990s has been banned. According to Bianet, now that Türk has presented his party's final defence (a written defence was submitted in February), a rapporteur will be appointed to draft a report which the Constitutional Court will debate and vote on. The DTP will be made illegal if at least seven of the eleven members of the Court are in favour of a ban.

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