Pro-Kurdish party in Turkey asks Turkish top court to postpone closure case ruling

"We asked the Constitutional Court to issue its decision on closing the HDP after the elections."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2023/01/16 23:19

Co-leader of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) Mithat Sancar (R) speaks during his party's group meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, Turkey on January 10, 2023 (Photo: Adem Altan/AFP)

Turkey Turkish elections HDP Constitutional Court AKP MHP

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Monday asked the Turkish Constitutional Court to postpone its decision to ban the party after the Turkish elections, planned for June 2023.

Co-leader of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), Mithat Sancar, told reporters on Monday that they have applied to the Constitutional Court to decide the outcome of the HDP arrest case after the elections.

"We asked the Constitutional Court to issue its decision on closing the HDP case after the elections," he said.

"The Constitutional Court should stop all proceedings on this case. The authorities want to use this case against the HDP as a tool to threaten us.”

"The Constitutional Court should give us a positive answer as soon as possible," he said.

Moreover, he added that if the Constitutional Court postpones the case, it would strengthen the argument that the Constitutional Court is independent and does not take orders from the Turkish government.

“We have been facing a closure case since June 2021, and this will most probably be finalized in the coming months, before the elections,” the HDP spokesperson said in a press release on January 9, after the Court blocked the HDP’s party funds.

“The prosecutor will set out his views on this case to the Constitutional Court verbally on 10 January 2023. The court will then allow time for us to prepare a verbal rebuttal.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has accused the HDP of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is banned in Turkey.

The HDP has argued that the Constitutional Court’s earlier decision to block their party funds was politically motivated.

“The MHP, President Erdoğan’s ultranationalist ally, has been aiming at this for a long time. It seems that the court has surrendered to political pressure and has become a tool for directing politics in the run-up to the elections.”

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) fears the HDP could play a kingmaker role.

The HDP in the March 2019 elections supported Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidates in Istanbul, Ankara, and other municipalities in Western Turkey, defeating AKP candidates.

"Erdogan and his allies fear that the HDP may play a similar kingmaker role in the next presidential elections, hence their pressures to totally destroy the HDP before the elections," the HDP statement said in an earlier statement in July.

HDP’s co-chair Pervin Buldan earlier announced that the HDP will run its own candidates because the leaders of six Turkish opposition parties, called the ‘table for 6’, have agreed to put forward a joint presidential candidate, but have not included the HDP in their alliance.

Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former co-leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), earlier told Kurdistan 24’s Adem Özgür through his lawyer that the HDP always keeps the door open for dialogue and cooperation.

"Although the HDP always keeps the door open for dialogue and cooperation, they have not used this chance until now. Against all these policies to ignore (us), HDP decided to go to the elections with its own presidential candidate, but it did not close its doors completely.”

He called on the Turkish opposition to “meet with the HDP and take step towards reconciliation.”