Erdoğan ally urges Turkey's top court to shut down pro-Kurdish party

The leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Sunday urged the country’s top court to rule in favour of a closure against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), T24 news site reported.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court would not be able to account for its decision, should against shutting down the second largest opposition party in parliament, Devlet Bahçeli, the junior coalition partner of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said.

The court in June accepted an indictment by a top prosecutor seeking to disband the HDP on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war for Kurdish self-rule for 40 years. The HDP denies the allegations and maintains the case is politically motivated.

"The issue of the HDP closure is now a legal matter. We will be waiting impatiently for the Constitutional Court’s decision,’’ the MHP leader said. 

"The HDP must be shut down, its closure is a necessity of justice. Should the Constitutional Court avoid closing he HDP under the banner of violation of rights, then it will not be able to account for its decision before the people of the nation.’’  

The case against the HDP arrives amid a widespread government crackdown on the group, with dozens of elected HDP lawmakers and mayors, including former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, along with thousands of party members behind bars on terror charges. Since 2019, 48 of the 65 elected HDP mayors in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern regions have been removed from office by the Interior Ministry, citing "terror investigations.''

Bahçeli on Sunday also reiterated a call for the restructuring of the Constitutional Court.

The court does not have the right to "violate the constitution and damage the unity of the state with the country and its people,’’ the MHP leader added.

Bahçeli in March called for the closure of Turkey’s top court after the court sent an indictment calling for the HDP to be banned back to the top prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, citing procedural grounds.