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Top Turkish court to consider shutting
Kurdish DTP party
23.11.2007
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Turkish court agrees to hear case calling for ban of
pro-Kurdish party
November 23, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's Constitutional Court said
on Friday it had accepted a request from a lower
court to examine whether to shut down a pro-Kurdish
political party, in a move that could harm Ankara's
European Union bid.
State prosecutors have signalled they want to shut
down the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP),
which has 20 members of parliament, over its alleged
close ties with Turkey's Kurdish PKK guerrillas and
its calls for autonomy in the heavily Kurdistan
southeast Turkey. |
Turkey's pro-Kurdish DTP party, the only Kurdish
political party in Turkey |
"We have discussed the request of the chief
prosecutor (of the appeals court) and we have
decided to accept the indictment," said Osman Paksut,
acting chairman of the Constitutional Court.
The trial process will begin after the DTP has been
formally notified of the court decision, Paksut
said, adding that the court would provide more
details later about what measures could be taken
against the party. www.ekurd.net
It was not immediately clear how long the trial
might take.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling
centre-right AK Party have signalled they are not in
favour of closing down political parties, a step
which would run against the spirit of liberal
reforms linked to Ankara's EU membership drive.
Turkey has shut down several predecessors of the DTP
over the past two decades for allegedly supporting
'terrorism' and endangering national unity and
security.
EU officials have urged Ankara not to shut down the
DTP but have also said that party must distance
itself from militants of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), who are battling Turkish
security forces in southeast Turkey.
DTP lawmakers have infuriated many Turks by refusing
to condemn the PKK as a terrorist organisation. The
EU and the United States, like Turkey, view the PKK
as a terrorist group.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed up by
tanks, artillery and warplanes, near its mountainous
border with Iraqi Kurdistan in preparation for a
possible incursion to crush an estimated 3,000 PKK
rebels who use the mainly Kurdish region as a base. www.ekurd.net
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK
launched its armed insurgency against the Turkish
state in 1984, for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Reuters
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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