TURKISH CONSTITUTIONAL COURT BANS DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY PARTY
ANKARA - Turkish Constitutional Court, country's top
legal authority, has decided to shut down Democratic Society Party, or
DTP, on charges it has ties with the terrorist organization PKK,
court's president said on Friday.
Constitutional Court President Hasim Kilic said 37 DTP executives, including DTP Chairman Ahmet Turk and MP Aysel Tugluk were banned from politics for five years.
Chief Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya filed a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court on November 16, 2007, asking the closure of DTP since it allegedly became a center of actions against Turkey's inseparable unity.
Founded in 2005, the DTP has currently 21 seats at the parliament. The party won 2009 local elections in nine provinces (Diyarbakir, Batman, Hakkari, Igdir, Siirt, Sirnak, Tunceli, Bingol and Van.
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