DTP deputies to resign from Parliament after party closure

    The court also ruled to rescind parliamentary membership of Türk and the party’s former co-chair Aysel Tuğluk. These individuals along with 35 other members of the party, including some of its founders, who the court said contributed to the party’s closure with their statements supporting the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were also banned from politics for the next five years. Türk and Tuğluk’s parliamentary deputy status will drop automatically when the court ruling is published in the Official Gazette, according to the ruling. The party’s closure, Constitutional Court President Haşim Kılıç announced, went into effect at the time of the ruling. Türk made a short statement after the ruling Friday night, after a party meeting at the DTP headquarters in Ankara, saying he strongly believed that one day the Kurdish question would be solved peacefully and in tandem with the principles of democracy, adding that he hoped that the day was not too far away.

    “By closing political parties, you cannot solve the Kurdish problem. I am sure peace and democracy will one day prevail,” he said. He also added that they would implement their decision made ahead of the closure announcement to resign from Parliament together with all DTP deputies even if only one of them were banned from politics. The DTP has 21 deputies in Parliament. Türk and Tuğluk have lost their status as deputies, but technically the remaining 19 can continue to serve in Parliament if they don’t resign. Kılıç explained the court’s rationale, saying the party had become “a focal point of activities against the state’s unity” with its “actions and ties to the terrorist organization,” a reference to the PKK, which has waged a separatist campaign against Turkey since 1984.

“A political party does not have the freedom to praise acts or statements that involve terrorism and violence,” Kılıç said. “A political party must act in line with democratic social values.”

The ban on the four-year-old party was a setback for efforts to bring pro-Kurdish leaders into the political mainstream, and it could escalate tension with Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey’s population of more than 70 million.

Turkey is engaged in a struggling bid to join the European Union, which has said Turkish laws that allow the banning of political parties are incompatible with European conventions on rights to freedom of assembly. The EU and the United States label the PKK a terrorist organization.

The European Union’s Swedish presidency expressed concern on Friday over the decision by Turkey’s Constitutional Court to close the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party. “While strongly denouncing violence and terrorism, the presidency recalls that the dissolution of political parties is an exceptional measure that should be used with utmost restraint,” the presidency said in a statement, adding that it  would monitor further developments closely. 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking before the court ruling, had accused the DTP party of backing the PKK but vowed to press ahead with overtures to the Kurdish population despite criticism from Turkish nationalists that the unity of the state was under threat.

Erdoğan complained that the DTP had not embraced the state’s recent efforts, which included easing cultural restrictions with the launch of a Kurdish-language department at a university and allowing inmates to speak the language with their relatives during prison visits. Turkey also launched a Kurdish-language channel on state television this year.

Erdoğan’s own party, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), last year survived an attempt to ban it on charges it violated Turkey’s secular principles. AK Party officials have argued political parties should not be banned unless they support terrorism.

On Friday, the PKK shot and wounded three Turkish soldiers in a terrorist attack near the southeastern town of Şemdinli. Earlier this week, terrorists killed seven Turkish soldiers in an ambush in Tokat, in Central Anatolia.

PKK supporters staged protests on Friday in the Kurdish-dominated Southeast, stoning buildings that house military families and setting small fires in the city of Hakkari, close to the borders with Iraq and Iran. Police responded with water cannons to disperse the crowds.

The court has shut down several Kurdish parties on similar charges in the past. The predecessor of the DTP dissolved itself in 2005.

The party is the 27th to be shut down in Turkey since 1968.

What happens next

If indeed all the DTP deputies resign and if these resignations are accepted by Parliament (half of all deputies must give an aye vote to make the resignations valid), then the number of empty seats in Parliament will rise to 27, one seat short of the Constitutional article that stipulates that interim elections should be held.

Another possibility for the DTP could be creating a new party. For a political party to have a parliamentary group, it needs to have 20 deputies. The DTP had already set up a new party named the Peace and Democracy Party. If another deputy joins them, the remaining 19 deputies could form a parliamentary group. It is highly likely that Ufuk Uras, an independent İstanbul deputy and the former chairman of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), might be that person if the DTP deputies choose to form a new party.

Ongoing court trials in which Tuğluk was a defendant until her election to Parliament will now resume, as she has lost her parliamentary immunity. She is facing charges of promoting the terrorist PKK.

Among those banned from politics were two DTP mayors -- Batman Mayor Nejdet Atalay and Siirt Mayor Selim Sadak. For now, these individuals can remain in their positions as independents; however, they cannot join any other parties. But they are already faced with countless trials over speeches or statements that prosecutors believe are proof of their support for the outlawed PKK. Observers believe the DTP’s closure might have given judges handling these cases one less reason to slow down the process. It is feared that now the Supreme Court of Appeals might be less lenient regarding appeals against sentences handed down to Atalay and Sadak.

A graveyard of parties

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman shortly after the decision, Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said: “Turkey has become a graveyard for political parties that have been shut down. Closing political parties does not bring any benefit to Turkey. The Constitutional Court in its decision drew a parallel to the case of Batasuna in Spain, but in my opinion, that example does not really apply. Still, we have to wait for the reasoned opinion of the court to comment on that.”

In initial comments on the ruling, Kurdish writer Ümit Fırat said he believed the government’s Kurdish initiative will be undermined by the decision. This summer, the government announced a Kurdish initiative, which it later came to call the democratic initiative, whereby Kurds will be given more rights, aiming to end separatist terror. He also stated that he believed the process would certainly continue, but added that legislation governing political parties should be changed to not allow party closures.

Officials of other political parties did not appear too critical of the ruling. In initial remarks, Democratic Left Party (DSP) Deputy Chairman Hasan Macit said his party was against party closures on principle but added that they felt the DTP deserved to be shut down with its recent actions. “A party has to abide by the Constitution and the Political Parties Law. Those who don’t have to face the consequences.”

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen said the Constitutional Court had acted in accordance with both domestic law and international law as well as with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. He said the decision was not a political but a legal one. “The decision was made solely on legal grounds, and everyone has to respect this decision,” Öymen said.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli seconded Öymen. “Everyone should respect the high court’s decision and avoid discussions that would serve the aims of separatist terror in this sensitive period,” Bahçeli said, in a written statement he released Friday night.

The deputy chairman of the AK Party’s parliamentary group, Mustafa Elitaş, said the AK Party was against shutting down political parties in principle but said they believed everyone should respect the decision of the Constitutional Court. In response to a question from the press on whether the closure ruling would undermine the government’s Kurdish initiative efforts, he said: “Our initiative process is not incumbent upon the DTP’s opening or closure. We started it for Turkey’s democratization. It shall continue from this point onward as well. It is a project of national unity, solidarity. In this project all should respect, tolerate and understand one another. Even the most extreme ideas should be voiced.”

Environment Minister Veysel Eroğlu, in initial comments, said, “I believe that a party should be closed by the people.”