Washington DC : Turkey has called on the courts to outlaw the left-wing pro-Kurdish HDP after years of repression against them. The US State Department has said the move will “undermine democracy.”
The US called on Turkey to respect freedom of expression on Wednesday evening as a Turkish court considered a request to dissolve the People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The State Department said the US was closely monitoring events in Turkey, including “troubling?moves on?March 17 to strip?Member of Parliament Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu?of his parliamentary seat.”
The planned dissolution of the pro-Kurdish HDP, under charges of links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), “would unduly subvert the will of Turkish voters, further undermine democracy?in Turkey, and deny millions of Turkish citizens their chosen representation,” the State Department said.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry rejected the statement saying: “Everyone must wait for the ruling the Constitutional Court will make in this process. Commenting on an ongoing judicial process amounts to intervention in the judiciary.”
Despite attempts by Erdogan and the AKP to pursue a more moderate approach towards the country’s Kurdish minority when they first came to power, an increasingly nationalistic trend has drawn the government into open conflict with Kurdish militants.
However, Turkey’s crackdown against HDP politicians and mayors since 2019 was described as undue repression by the European Union last month.
The leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli — and an ally of Erdogan — welcomed the dissolution of the pro-Kurdish party on Thursday, saying the party should be closed down “never to be opened again,” Reuters reported
