03-12-2009
Ankara – Turkey’s highest legal body will debate a closure case against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party upcoming Tuesday, reports the Anatolian news agency.
Earlier, there was a lawsuit filed against the DTP by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the Constitutional Court, because the party allegedly was acting against the unity of the Turkish state.
The prosecutors also demanded a ban of 220 members of the political party from politics. Under the Turkish constitution, a majority of votes are required to outlaw a political party. In this case, at least 7 out of 11 members of the top court should vote to ban the DTP.
In 2008 the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) nearly escaped a party ban, after six of the 11 members wanted to ban the party for threatening secularism, but five did not want to do so. The AKP promised law reforms making it more difficult to ban political parties.
The DTP was founded in 2005 and has 21 seats in the Turkish parliament. Many of its predecessors were banned for having ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) (Photo: DTP logo).
© Rudaw
