SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkey’s constitutional court accepted an indictment on Monday seeking a ban on the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Turkish media.
The court’s approval opens the way for a case that could close the HDP, parliament’s third-largest party.
On June 8, a top Turkish prosecutor refiled the case with the constitutional court demanding the closure of the HDP.
In a written statement, the prosecutor said the HDP committed crimes against the independence of the state and its unbreakable unity with its country and people, according to Anadolu.
In March, the constitutional court sent back a similar indictment on procedural grounds for lack of details. The latest indictment demanded a political ban on some 500 party members and a block on HDP’s bank accounts.
HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan said earlier this month that the case against the party was a “political operation”, adding that the judiciary should investigate recent allegations of corruption among top government officials rather than open a case against her party.
“We can see the pit that the judiciary has fallen into,” Buldan said, speaking to members of her party.
“The judiciary that cannot, does not come down on crime organizations has become a shield for the mafia order once again by launching a closure case against the HDP,” she added.
Turkey has a long history of shutting down political parties seen as a threat and has in the past banned a series of other Kurdish parties.
The prosecutor’s move in March was the culmination of a years-long crackdown on the HDP, under which thousands of its members were tried on mainly terrorism charges.
The party denies links to terrorism and called the move a “political coup”.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who has repeatedly called for the closure of the HDP, said the Constitutional Court did not have the option to return the indictment a second time.
“This bloody and dark page should be closed never to be opened,” Bahceli told members of his party.
