The chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Cassation accused the party of “acting almost like a recruitment agency” for the PKK
A prosecutor today asked Turkey’s Constitutional Court to outlaw the pro-Kurdish party HDP on charges of terrorism, a few months before parliamentary and presidential elections in the country.
The general prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Cassation accused the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in the Turkish parliament, of being linked “in an organic way” to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that Ankara and its Western allies she has been labeled a “terrorist”.
They “act almost like a recruiting office” for him PKKprosecutor Bekir Sahin said to reporters as he left the Constitutional Court, Anadolu news agency reported.
The HDP, which denies any ties to the PKK, has a month to present its defense, a party spokesman explained.
A two-thirds majority of the 15 members of the Constitutional Court is required to outlaw the party.
“War” against the party before the upcoming presidential elections
On Thursday, Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided, by eight votes to seven, to suspend state funding to the HDP.
This year the pro-Kurdish party should receive 539 million Turkish lira (26.7 million euros) from the state, with a third of the amount to be paid before January 10.
The HDP called this decision an “abuse of law” and has a month to challenge it.
In the previous parliamentary elections, the HDP won 12% of the vote, with some analysts estimating that it will play an important role in the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for spring.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has considered the party a black sheep since 2015, when he stripped it of a majority in parliament. Since 2016, the year in which its leader Selahattin Demirtas was arrested and remains in prison, the HDP has been targeted by the authorities.
Many of its officials and members have also been arrested, and dozens of HDP-aligned mayors — who were elected mainly in southeastern Turkey where many Kurds live — have been replaced by officials appointed by the Turkish government.
The process to outlaw the HDP began in March 2021.
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