Turkey Takes Steps to Outlaw Pro-Kurdish Party

HDP supporters at an anti-government march after the arrest of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democtaric Party HDP parliamentarians, 18 June 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

"The HDP and its members, through their statements and actions, has aimed to damage and break the unity of the state with the Turkish people. Therefore, the closure of the party is demanded from the Constitutional Court," Bekir Sahin, of the Court of Cassation, said in a written statement.

The far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, which is a partner in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling coalition, has been demanding the closure of the party for a long time.

"The HDP must be closed down and should not be allowed to continue with a newly named different party," Devlet Bahceli, leader of the MHP said, equating the HDP with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, which has been fighting Turkish governments for nearly four decades seeking greater Kurdish autonomy.

Pressure on the HDP and other Kurdish groups has intensified in recent years. Dozens of HDP MPs, including its former leader, Selahattin Demirtas, have been imprisoned on imprecise terrorism charges.

Since the last local elections in Turkey, 59 of the 64 elected HDP mayors have also been dismissed from office on similar grounds, and several have been sent to prison, too.

Human rights groups, the EU and opposition parties have called for the release of Demirtas and other Kurdish politicians arrested for political reasons.

But the government continues to brand them as "terrorists" and has taken no steps to free them - despite a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, seeking the immediate release of Demirtas.

The ruling coalition of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party,...