Erdoğan’s far-right ally calls for closure of pro-Kurdish party

Erdoğan’s far-right ally calls for closure of pro-Kurdish party

  • Date: December 14, 2020
  • Categories:Rights
Ο ακροδεξιός σύμμαχος του Ερντογάν ζητά το κλείσιμο του Κουρδικού κόμματος
  • Date: December 14, 2020
  • Categories:Rights

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Erdoğan’s far-right ally calls for closure of pro-Kurdish party

The leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, called on Friday for the Turkish judiciary to shut down the country’s pro-Kurdish opposition.

Responding to a recent call for an amnesty for political prisoners on Human Rights Day, Devlet Bahçeli said Turkish politics no longer had the capacity to tolerate the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest grouping the country’s parliament.

In November, Erdoğan vowed to undertake a series of legal reforms in the face of growing political and economic pressure, raising expectations that prominent political prisoners including former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş were set to be released.

Demirtaş has been detained since 2016 despite several rulings for his release by both Turkish courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He faces a sentence of up to 142 years for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

But Bahçeli, a close Erdoğan ally since forming an electoral pact with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2018, said he opposed the release of Demirtaş and other prisoners.

“The independent and impartial Turkish judiciary should stop the efforts to extract a monument of democracy from an imprisoned terrorist.” Bahçeli said on social media.

“It should be confirmed whether they are legally criminals or not. This should be the priority of the legal reforms.” he added.

Responding to Bahçeli, the HDP said it would bring democracy to Turkey despite the attitude of the MHP leader.

“Those who take shelter in the comfortable shade of the (presidential) palace, are the real enemies of this country. If you close your mouth instead of closing down the HDP, you will be doing a great favour to the future of the country,” the party said.