Turkish MOP for the political party Peoples' Democratic Party Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu (right) reacts after being dismissed in Ankara on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
A top Turkish prosecutor filed a case with the constitutional court on Wednesday demanding the closure of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), in the culmination of a years-long clampdown on parliament's third largest party.
Turkey has a long history of shutting down political parties which it regards as a threat and has in the past banned a series of other pro-Kurdish parties.
The HDP had recently come under intensified pressure, with nationalist allies of President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) calling for it to be banned over alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
That has coincided with falling poll support for the AKP and its nationalist allies as Erdogan's government battles the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Elections are not scheduled until 2023.
The HDP said prosecutors acted on political orders and accused the ruling AK Party of shaping politics through the courts.
"The closure case launched against our party is a heavy blow to democracy and law," the HDP said in a statement, adding that its "determined struggle for democratic politics" would continue.
The embattled lira extended losses on concerns about the political impact of the move, weakening 2 percent to 7.64 against the dollar.
"[The HDP] move together with the PKK terrorist group and other linked organizations, they act as a branch of the organization with the aim of breaking the unity of the state," Turkish appeals court chief prosecutor Bekir Sahin said in a statement.
Reuters