Turkey's Constitutional Court has closed down the Democratic Society Party (DTP) for having links with the outlawed Kurdish militants
rick murphy
Turkey's Constitutional Court has closed down the Democratic Society
Party (DTP) for having links with the outlawed Kurdish militants, the
Turkish daily Hurriyet said. Is DTP a supporter of PKK terrorist
organization or is DTP trying to pursue the issues and problems of the
citizens of the democratic Republic of Turkiye of Kurdish heritage?
The court determined that DTP has links to the PKK terrorists
organization which is responsible of murdering nearly 45 thousands
innocent human beings and destruction of many hundreds of billions
dollars of property in Turkiye (may of whom are of Kurdish background)
to destroy the democratic Republic of Turkiye and establish a marxist,
leninist, communist PKK terrorists dictatorship in Turkiye. That is
illegal under the law every country in the world including Turkiye.
+++++++++++++
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=dtp-closure-adds-new-dimension-to-kurdish-issue-2009-12-30
DTP closure adds new dimension to Kurdish issue
Friday, January 1, 2010
Jennifer AMUR
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
We all knew what was coming hours before it happened. We were closely
following the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, closure
case in the Constitutional Court, and we knew the verdict would be
announced after the stock markets closed Friday, Dec. 11.
What I did not expect was the result, and the country's and DTP's
reaction to it.
Ultimately, the court disbanded the party and banned 37 party members,
including co-leader Ahmet Türk, from politics for five years for links
to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The decision left 19
parliamentary deputies hanging in the balance, just one body shy of
the minimum 20 required to create a parliamentary group.
The official announcement came from Constitutional Court President
Haşim Kılıç on live television. As a Web editor on the Hürriyet Daily
News & Economic Review's two-person Web desk, it was my responsibility
to piece together a breaking news story based on Kılıç's comments and
any background information relevant to the decision.
Breaking news is meant to be a business with no pauses, no hold-ups,
and no breaks for personal interjections. It's news, fast. But with
word of the closure came a moment of astonishment among those of us
who remained in the newsroom that evening. It wasn't astonishment
because we all agreed on what the verdict should or should not have
been; it was astonishment because the decision, be it right or wrong,
would undoubtedly have such wide-ranging, long-lasting implications.
Our Web readers responded similarly. Within the first 30 minutes of
the news hitting the Web, the story had more than 500 hits, a big
number for a Friday evening when people are usually heading home for
the weekend.
The story also garnered more than 60 comments, many of them within an
hour or two of the announcement.
Some commented on the decision's possible consequences on Turkey's
European Union accession bid: "It would suggest that institutionally
Turkey is not yet qualified for accession to the European Union," a
reader named Mourad wrote.
Others lamented the ruling, calling it a step back for democracy in
the country. "Yet another sad day in the history of the republic,"
Alex wrote. "You cannot solve a problem by banning or shutting down
organizations that have different view. I really think that this is a
trap that these people are falling into. The kurds will & must have a
voice within the framework of this country."
Still other commentators were pleased with the closure: "At last these
terrorists have been kicked out," Serkan wrote. "Better late than
never."
Our reader's comments on the Web site proved to be representative of
the varied reactions around the country. The closure took center
stage, becoming the focus of the Turkish media and of intense
political discussions nationwide.
The recent beginning
The court's decision to shutter the country's only pro-Kurdish party
with a presence in Parliament provided a new dimension to the ruling
party's long-debated plans to solve the Kurdish issue.
The government announced July 29 that it would take "courageous" steps
to solve the Kurdish issue, with Interior Minister Beşir Atalay saying
more democracy and more freedom would be the methods pursued.
Much criticism followed that announcement, with many calling for the
disclosure of more concrete plans. Others condemned the ruling Justice
and Development Party, or AKP, for "cooperating with terrorists."
Between July and October, no tangible concrete steps were taken, but
fierce debate raged in the government and throughout the country about
whether the Kurdish initiative could lead to effective policies. Main
opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, claimed that the
initiative would harm national unity, while the DTP leadership
criticized the AKP for developing its solution behind closed doors.
Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli called the
plan "a PKK initiative."
That conversation changed in October. The first major incident that
the government tied to the initiative was the surrender of 34 people -
some refugees from the United Nations' Makhmour refugee camp and
others from the PKK's Kandil camps in northern Iraq - at the Habur
border gate on Oct. 19.
Their surrender and the subsequent DTP-organized hero's welcome
infuriated both those opposed to and in favor of the Kurdish
initiative. Many experts said the images coming out of Habur and
Diyarbakır of the seemingly victorious returnees strengthened the
position of the PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish military in
the Southeast since the 1980s in a conflict that has claimed about
40,000 lives.
With the decision to close the DTP and the beginning of the
government's Kurdish initiative behind us in 2009, Turkey looks to
2010 for answers to one of Turkey's deadliest, longest-standing
problems
rick murphy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Society_Party
Democratic Society Party (Turkish: Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP) was
a Kurdish political party in Turkey. The party considered itself
social democratic, and had observer status within the Socialist
International.[clarification needed] It was considered to be the
successor of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP). On December 11,
2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey banned the DTP, ruling that
the party has become "focal point of activities against the
indivisible unity of the state, the country and the nation". The ban
has been widely criticized both by groups within Turkey and by several
international organizations.
Background
The party was founded in 2005, as the merger of the DEHAP and the
Democratic Society Movement (DTH). DTH was set up by the veteran
Kurdish politicians, former deputies Leyla Zana, Orhan Doğan, Hatip
Dicle and Selim Sadak upon their release from prison in 2004. The
latest leader of the DTP was Ahmet Türk.[1] Ahmet Türk co-chaired the
party with Aysel Tuğluk until 9 November 2007 when they were replaced
by Nurettin Demirtaş and Emine Ayna.[2][3] However, Nurettin Demirtaş
was imprisoned the following month because of a fake health report
that enabled him to avoid military service.[4] In May 2008 Nurettin
Demirtaş was forced to resign after being released from prison and
conscripted into the Turkish Army.[5] Emine Ayna, MP for Mardin, was
elected leader of the DTP in his place.[2][6] Later in May, Ayna also
became Chair of the DTP Parliamentary Group, when Ahmet Türk resigned.
[2] However, in July 2008 Ahmet Türk became, once again, chairman of
the DTP.[7]
PKK Connections & Disbanding
Connection with the PKK
Since its inception, the party and its leaders have faced legal
problems with the Turkish government since critics[who?] suspect the
party of ties to the Kurdish separatist movements and the PKK, an
armed militant organization recognized as a terrorist organization by
Turkey, the EU and the USA.[8]
It was also criticized by observers for not distancing itself from
PKK's armed actions to confirm its refutations of its claimed links
with the PKK.[9] As of June 2007 report by the European Union
Institute for Security Studies stated that "It is an obvious secret
that DTP is connected to PKK in a way and PKK is a terrorist
group."[10]
Fatma Kurtulan, whose husband is an active PKK member, is one of the
MPs of the Democratic Society Party.[11][12]
In 27 April 2009 another MP Pervin Buldan stated "they designated the
boundaries of Kurdistan.[13]
In October 2007, in a meeting of the ambassadors of the EU countries
and the US to Turkey, it was reported that the diplomats pressured the
DTP to denounce PKK as terrorist,[14][15] following a DTP-sponsored
conference, whose final declaration called the jailed PKK leader,
Abdullah Öcalan, a "leader of the Kurdish people" and called for his
release.[16][17]
Leyla Zana, a leading figure in the party recently made the statement:
"in '99, our leader [Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK] was in
İmralı" which led the crowd to chant "Long live Apo" (Kurdish: Bijî
Serok Apo) the nickname of Öcalan.[18] A judicial investigation was
initiated over her remarks.[19]
Kurdish politician Abdülmelik Fırat claims that Democratic Society
Party (DTP) was founded by PKK, and that 80 percent of Kurds do not
vote for this party.[20]
However, senior DTP leaders claim that they support a unified Turkey
within a democratic framework. Tuğluk published an article in Radikal
in May 2007 to prove that claim.[21]
2007-2008 Attempt to ban
Supreme Court prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to ban the
Democratic Society Party. They allege that DTP is linked to the PKK.
Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said in an indictment "that
speeches and actions by party leaders have proved that the party has
become a focal point of activities against the sovereignty of the
state and indivisible unity of the country and the nation." He said
prosecutors hoped the legal case would shut down the party, which he
described as "based on blood and orders from the terrorist
organization of the PKK". Yalcinkaya said the party should be
prevented from participating in elections during the expected trial
period.[22]
The chief prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to ban 221 members
of the party, including eight lawmakers, from taking part in politics
for five years after the closure of the party.[22]
If the party is disbanded by the Constitutional Court, those eight
legislators will be banned from the Parliament despite a warning by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AKP) that excluding Kurdish
lawmakers could "push them toward illegal action" and bring them
closer to the rebel organization.[22]
The AKP itself barely escaped being dissolved in July 2008. Human
Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the Political Parties Act, which was
included in the closure case against the AKP and may be used against
the DTP.[23] According to HRW, the evidence in the indictment against
the DTP consists predominantly of nonviolent speeches and statements
by party officials and deputies.[23] Referencing the AKP case, the
Adiyaman deputy of the Republican People's Party requested that the
party not be closed, for consistency's sake.[24]
In his party's 54-page verbal defence, president Ahmet Türk reiterated
that the party was not affiliated with the PKK and suggested that the
national identity be redefined based on the concept of a shared
territory, rather than on ethnicity.[25] He noted that most of the
allegations against the party were human rights issues, the most
flagrant violation of which he considered to be impediments to using
the Kurdish language.
2009 Disbanding
On December 11, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey voted to ban
the DTP, ruling that the party has become the "focal point of
activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the country and
the nation" as the party has an organic connection to the PKK.[26][27]
The Court declared that DTP violated Articles 68 and 69 of the
Constitution and the Political Parties Law.[28] "The party became a
focal point for terrorism against the indivisible integrity of the
state.", stated Haşim Kılıç, president of the Court.[28] Chairman
Ahmet Turk and legislator Aysel Tugluk were expelled from Parliament,
and they and 35 other party members were banned from joining any
political party for five years.[29]
These party members include: Abdulkadir Fırat, Abdullah İsnaç, Ahmet
Ay, Ahmet Ertak, Ahmet Türk, Ali Bozan, Ayhan Ayaz Aydın, Budak Ayhan
Karabulut, Aysel Tuğluk, Bedri Fırat, Cemal Kuhak, Deniz Yeşilyurt,
Ferhan Türk, Fettah Dadaş, Hacı Üzen Halit Kahraman, Hatice Adıbelli,
Hilmi Aydoğdu, Hüseyin Bektaşoğlu, Hüseyin Kalkan, İbrahim Sungur,
İzzet Belge, Kemal Aktaş, Leyla Zana, Mehmet Salih, Sağlam Mehmet,
Veysi Dilekçi, Metin Tekçe, Murat Avcı, Murat Taş, Musa Farisoğulları,
Mustafa Tuç, Nejdet Atalay, Nurettin Demirtaş, Orhan Miroğlu, Sedat
Yurttaş, Salim Sadak.
Later the same day, the Presidency of the European Union released a
statement, expressing concern over the Turkish court ruling, and
calling upon Turkey to reform its legislation on political parties.
[30]
The decision of the Constitutional Court sparked reaction among AK
Party parliamentarians. Mir Dengir Mehmet Fırat 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."[27]
Massoud Barzani, President of The Kurdistan Regional Government stated
"The president's office expresses its anger at the Turkish
constitutional court's outlawing of the Democratic Society Party
(DTP)," as hundreds of protesters gathered in Arbil, Iraq.
Most of the MPs who had been in the DTP decided to join the recently
formed Peace and Democracy Party.
Pre-legislative period
On 30 July 2007, the members of the DTP as a group declared in their
deputy information[clarification needed] that "Turkish is their second
language."[31] The parliament stopped the dissemination of information
regarding the deputies, until the situation cleared up. The Ankara
politics tried to find out the answers regarding these new members
ability to follow the legislation sessions, such that 16 years ago
same issue was happened with Leyla Zana who claimed that Turkish was
her second language and used the Kurdish for the parliamentary oath.
In 1991, the script of the parliamentary oath included words such that
"I would hold my nation high." Some members of the public questioned
Leyla Zana on the grounds of which nation she had sworn to "hold
high". Chairwoman Aysel Tuğluk made a statement to the press on Sunday
in which she asserted, "We are here to serve our country."[32]
Legislative period
On November 5, 2007, inclusion of the demand for autonomy in the six
Kurdish provinces in the party program. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan is accused of heading down a dead-end street by attempting to
show Kurdish people as a minority group [autonomy of Kurdish
provinces] in Turkey which DTP claimed located in that region.[33]
On November 11, 2007, leader Nurettin Demirtaş called on political
party leaders to convene a "democracy summit". Demirtaş noted his
party has the will and initiative to stop bloodshed in the country.
They acted as an intermediary in the release of the eight abducted
soldiers.[34] DTP members have come under intense criticism after some
party members shook hands [sign of solidarity] with PKK leaders when
they went to northern Iraq to mediate for the release of abducted
Turkish soldiers. The DTP members did not sing Turkey's national
anthem during the opening of a party conference.[33]
Elections
2007 General election
See also: Turkish general election, 2007
The Democratic Society Party claimed that the 10% threshold of the
national vote required in order to be represented in the Grand
Assembly was aimed at disqualifying it from the parliament. However,
many other parties failed to cross this threshold in the last
election. The Democratic Society Party decided to have its candidates
run as Independents. On 13 May DTP announced that if they wanted to,
they could lock up the elections by putting in five to ten thousand
independent candidates.[35] The next day in a statement, the High
Election Committee (Turkish: Yüksek Seçim Kurulu (YSK)) responded to
DTP's threat by stating that there was no issue and that they would
simply use "larger envelopes".[36]
20 DTP affiliates running as independents were elected to the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey:
Batman: Ayla Akat Ata, Bengi Yıldız
Bitlis: Mehmet Nezir Karabaş
Diyarbakır: Aysel Tuğluk, Selahattin Demirtaş, Gültan Kışanak
Hakkari: Hamit Geylani
Iğdır: Pervin Buldan
İstanbul: Sebahat Tuncel
Mardin: Ahmet Türk, Emine Ayna
Muş: Sırrı Sakık, Nuri Yaman
Siirt: Osman Özçelik
Şanlıurfa: İbrahim Binici
Şırnak: Sevahir Bayındır, Hasip Kaplan
Tunceli: Şerafettin Halis
Van: Fatma Kurtulan, Özdal Uçer
İstanbul deputy, Sebahat Tuncel, was under arrest when elected and
being tried on charges of being a member of PKK.[37]
Hamit Geylani could not join the DTP parliamentarian group due to a
former verdict of the Constitutional Court.[38] Akın Birdal joined DTP
to enable the party reach the 20 deputy threshold to form a group.[39]
Eight of the newly elected deputies from the party are women. The
female deputies (including İstanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel) are:
Name Province
Aysel Tuğluk Diyarbakır
Gültan Kışanak Diyarbakır
Emine Ayna Mardin
Sevahir Bayındır Şırnak
Fatma Kurtulan Van
Pervin Buldan Iğdır
Ayla Akat Ata Batman
Sebahat Tuncel İstanbul
2009 local elections
DTP currently has mayors in nine provincial capitals:
Diyarbakır (metropolitan municipality) 65.58%
Batman 65.43%
Hakkari 78.97%
Iğdır 39.62%
Siirt 49.43%
Şırnak 53.75%
Tunceli 30.00%
Bingol 34.28%
Van 53.54%
At the time of 2009 local elections, DTP had mayors in 54
municipalities:[40]
Province # With Mayors
Diyarbakır Province 12 of 32 including Diyarbakır Metropolitan
Municipality, the districts of Bismil,
Dicle, Ergani, Kocaköy, Lice, Silvan (six districts out of
thirteen) and other
minor municipalities.
Mardin Province 8 of 32 including Dargeçit, Derik, Kızıltepe,
Mazıdağı, Nusaybin among the
nine districts of the province
Batman Province 5 of 12 including Batman city, the districts of
Beşiri and Gercüş (two districts
out of five) and two minor municipalities.
Şırnak Province 5 of 20 including Şırnak city and the districts of
Beytüşşebap, Cizre, İdil,
Silopi, among the seven of the province.
Muş Province 4 of 28 including Bulanık, Malazgirt and Varto among
the nine districts of
the province.
Hakkari Province 4 of 8 including Hakkari city, two districts out of
three (Yüksekova and
Şemdinli), and one minor municipality.
Şanlıurfa Province 4 of 26 including Ceylanpınar, Suruç, Viranşehir
districts.
Siirt Province 2 of 13 including Kurtalan district.
Adana Province 2 of 53 two minor municipalities in Seyhan and
Yüreğir districts.
Tunceli Province 1 of 10 (Tunceli city).
Ağrı Province 1 of 12 notable district of Doğubeyazıt.
One minor municipality in each of the provinces of Adıyaman, Aydın,
Iğdır, Kars, Konya and Van.[citation needed] 43 of them in seven
provinces in Southeastern Turkey densely inhabited by Kurds, including
the mainly Kurdish inhabited city of Diyarbakır, where the DTP mayor
is Osman Baydemir. The party originally had five municipalities in
Muş. Orhan Özer, the mayor of the minor municipality Rüstemgedik was
expelled in May 2007 for practicing polygamy.[41]
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29.^ Hacaoglu, Selcan (2009-12-11). "Turkey bans pro-Kurdish party
over ties to rebels". http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9VhSca_oZldvbO-XktR7l7Sa_PgD9CH89VG0.
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2008-08-28.
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Retrieved 2007-05-16.
37.^ Karabat, Ayse (2007-07-25). "They made it to Parliament but tough
job awaits DTP's women". Today's Zaman.
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39.^ "Meclis'te 4. Grup DTP oldu" (in Turkish). Gundem Online.
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40.^ http://www.yerelnet.org.tr[not specific enough to verify]
41.^ "Belediye Başkanı, Eşinin Üzerine Kuma Getirmekten Partisinden
İhraç Edildi haberi" (in Turkish). Cihan News Agency (Haberler.com).
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