Turkey ready for another political
burial By Hilmi Toros
ISTANBUL - Turkey seems to have a far
bigger "cemetery" for political parties than many
other democratic nations. Its next occupant could
be a controversial pro-Kurdish party.
If
shut down, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) will
be the 26th political organization banned in the
past 25 years in what political researcher Murat
Sevinc calls "an unenviable world record hard to
beat". He says closing down of parties is rare in
democracies, but rife in this country engaged in
multi-party politics since 1946, and aspiring for
full European Union membership.
Turkey's
Constitutional Court will consider the case that
DTP be
shut
down, as petitioned by the chief prosecutor. "The
party has become a focal point of activities
against the sovereignty of the state and
indivisible unity of the country and the nation,"
according to the charges. The chief prosecutor
also asked that 221 party members, including eight
members of Parliament, be banned from politics for
five years.
The party is portrayed as
being an extension, or political wing, of the
outlawed and separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK), which has been battling security forces on
and off since 1984 in a conflict that has left
over 30,000 dead.
The PKK is branded a
"terrorist" organization by the United States, the
European Union and Turkey. It is believed to have
1,500 guerrillas within Turkey, and some 3,000
holed up in the mountains in northern Iraq
bordering Turkey. Its founder, Abdullah Ocalan, is
serving life term in a Turkish jail on conviction
of insurrection.
The DTP, like four
previous pro-Kurdish parties eventually banned,
abstains from calling the PKK a terrorist group,
and describes Ocalan, vilified by Turks as "chief
terrorist", a "leader". It says it stands for
increased autonomy for Turkey's estimated 12
million Kurds, in a population of 73 million.
While there is little national sympathy
for the DTP, and legal grounds may exist to close
it, many Turks are not sure that it would be in
the country's best interest. "I think the
Constitutional Court will close down the party,
but in my view it should not," Istanbul attorney
Sanem Yunusoglu told Inter Press Service. "If
closed, what next? They will just form another
party with a different name."
Can, or
should, a political party be closed down? No, says
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose own
previous party was shut down because it was seen
as pursuing an Islamic agenda against the secular
order. But Erdogan asked the DTP to make a
definite and public break with the PKK, and choose
between "terrorism and democracy".
Turkey's Human Rights Association and some
civil society groups are also against closing down
the Kurdish party. The European Court of Human
Rights could overturn the verdict, says former
Parliament speaker Husamettin Cindoruk.
If, on the other hand, the party is
allowed to function, many fear the PKK will gain a
voice in Parliament through the DTP, and the party
will be run by Ocalan from jail. "Turkey should
not have the image of a graveyard for political
parties," Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said
in a statement. "But the biggest responsibility
for this is on the shoulders of the politicians."
Selahatin Demirta, a DTP MP, said in a
statement: "The closure of parties is something
which should not take place in democratic
countries. This is an unfortunate action not only
for our party but also for the Turkish people."
The DTP is a curious entity. It did not
even exist during the July 22 parliamentary
elections. Had it been created before and
participated in the national poll, it would not
have cleared the 10% barrier required to enter
Parliament. Instead, pro-Kurdish candidates ran as
independents, with no obligation therefore to win
10% of the national ballot, and 20 were elected to
the 550-member chamber. The party was formed after
this.
In the election, the DTP would
retrospectively be seen to have obtained 1 million
of an estimated 5 million votes from people of
Kurdish origin. That tally is considered low; the
ruling Justice and Development Party, accepting
the country's Kurdish problem and advocating
solutions through economic and social reforms,
made strong gains in the impoverished
Kurdish-populated east and southeast.
The
image of the DTP has taken a fall. Last month,
what was intended to be a public relations coup
went wrong after party members played a role in
the sudden release of eight Turkish soldiers
kidnapped by PKK forces. DTP deputies went to
northern Iraq and claimed to have obtained their
release. But Kurdish flags and pictures of Ocalan
were prominent at the release ceremony, creating a
furor among Turks.
Amid suspicion of a
staged kidnapping, the eight soldiers have been
detained by the military, and are being questioned
as to why they offered no resistance to their
kidnappers.
The DTP has picked Nurettin
Demirtas as its new leader. Demirtas is considered
a hawk; he has served a 10-year jail term after
conviction for links to the PKK.
During
his meeting with US President George W Bush in
November, Erdogan obtained the first public US
pledge that the PKK is a "common enemy" of both
countries. Turkey and the US agreed to share
real-time intelligence on PKK fighters. Since
then, the Turkish military has carried out pointed
strikes in northern Iraq in preference to a large
military intervention opposed by the US and the
EU.
The US is seen as attempting to
accommodate both Turkey and the Kurds in northern
Iraq. Turkey has been a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization ally of the US for over half a
century, but it also refused entry to US troops
from Turkey into Iraq against Saddam Hussein in
2003. The Kurds in northern Iraq, on the other
hand, aided US troops, and administer an area
noted for its relative stability and pro-US stand
amid Shi'ite and Sunni turmoil elsewhere.
The legal case against the DTP could last
up to a year. "But the problem is not just legal,"
says attorney Yunusoglu. "It is also political.
There has to be acceptance of the identity and
interest of people of Kurdish origin within a
democratic society under the roof of Turkey. At
the same time, within that roof, it must be
accepted that there is no room for the PKK."
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
