07-12-2009
London - The Peace in Kurdistan has declared that the visit to the UK by Kurdish MP Akin Birdal from Turkey has been postponed due to closure threats that have been facing the Democratic Society Party (DTP), of which Mr Birdal is an elected parliamentary representative.
Akin Birdal was supposed to speak on the House of Lords about the Kurdish initiative of the Turkish government on Wednesday 9 December. The PIK has replaced Birdal with Medeni Kirici, a member of the DTP Foreign Affairs Committee, who has arrived in London for the occasion.
The Turkish Constitutional Court will debate the closure case against the DTP on Tuesday 8 December. According to the allegations, the DTP supports the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and threatens the unity of Turkey.
DTP co-chairman Ahmet Türk commented that there would be no point of DTP deputies remaining in Parliament if the party was shut down and he indicated that if this was the outcome, all DTP deputies would immediately resign from Parliament.
The visit by Akin Birdal, a veteran human rights lawyer and senior DTP politician, will be rescheduled for early in 2010.
© Rudaw
