ANKARA, (Reuters) – Turkey’s top court closed the only pro-Kurdish party in parliament yesterday for having links to PKK Kurdish rebels in a ruling that deals a fresh blow to the country’s faltering bid to join the European Union.
The EU promptly issued a statement of concern, having warned that banning the Democratic Society Party (DTP) would violate Kurdish rights and could set back the government’s drive to end decades of conflict with militant Kurdish separatists.
The U.S. State Department said the ruling was an internal matter but Turkey’s democracy should advance political freedom for all its citizens and measures that restrict those rights “should be exercised with extreme caution.” Turkey’s Constitutional Court voted unanimously to ban the DTP after finding it guilty of cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatist guerrilla group.
“The DTP’s closure was decided due to its connections with the terror organisation and because it became a focal point of the activities against the country’s integrity,” Constitutional Court Chairman Hasim Kilic said.
The ruling will raise political tensions and could hit sentiment in Turkish financial markets when they reopen.
“Implications … on Turkish assets will be negative for the short term due to a possible increase in the political risk premium,” said Mehmet Ilgen from ATA Invest.
The decision was announced after markets had closed, but the lira currency slipped and bond yields rose in after-hours trade.
With EU membership in mind, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party took a political gamble when he launched reforms to improve Kurds’ cultural rights in the hope of ending a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives.
In courting Kurdish support, Erdogan incurred hostility from a conservative establishment, including the judiciary, that historically regards Kurdish aspirations for more autonomy as a threat to the secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The PKK has fought for 25 years for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. The Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of the population but were for decades forbidden to use the Kurdish language, have long complained of discrimination.
The ruling bans 37 members of the DTP from politics for five years. The DTP is the only Kurdish party in parliament, and controls about 100 municipalities in the southeast.
“Turkey cannot solve its problems by closing down parties,” DTP chairman Ahmet Turk told reporters.
“As long as our goal is a solution to the Kurdish problem, it doesn’t matter who is banned or not from politics, because our determination to find a solution continues.”
He had said all 21 DTP deputies in Turkey’s 544-seat parliament would resign if the party was banned, which could trigger a by-election in Kurdish districts.
Sweden, speaking for the EU, said that while it strongly denounced violence and terrorism, “the dissolution of political parties is an exceptional measure that should be used with utmost restraint.”
