ANKARA: Turkey’s top court on Friday closed the country’s main pro-Kurdish party for having links to PKK Kurdish rebels in a ruling that could undermine efforts to end a long-running conflict with the separatists.
The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, had warned that banning the party would violate Kurdish rights.
The Constitutional Court voted unanimously to ban the Democratic Society Party (DTP) after it found the party guilty of cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatist group.
“The DTP’s closure was decided due to its connections with the terror organization and because it became a focal point of the activities against the country’s integrity,” Constitutional Court Chairman Hasim Kilic said as he announced the verdict.
The court ruling will raise political tensions, and could hit sentiment in Turkish financial markets when they reopen, analysts said. The decision was announced after markets had closed, but the lira currency weakened and bond yields rose in after hours trade.
“The news of the closure is likely to hurt Turkey’s political landscape for the short term,” Ehmet Ilgen from ATA Invest said.
“Implications of the closure on Turkish assets will be negative for short term due to possible increase in political risk premium,” he said.
The ruling imposes a five-year ban from politics on 37 members of the DTP, the only Kurdish party in Parliament.
Several pro-Kurdish parties have been banned in the past.
PKK guerrillas have fought for 25 years for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey.
Eyeing EU membership, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has worked to improve Kurds’ cultural rights with the hope of ending a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives.
Turkey’s Kurdish population, whose language was outlawed for years, has long complained of discrimination.
Analysts fear that banning the DTP would strengthen the PKK’s hand by undermining confidence both in the democratic process and the government’s reform initiative.
The ruling threatens to increase instability ahead of a general election set for 2011. The government is trying to steer the economy back from a deep recession.
The case was brought by Turkey’s Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, who tried unsuccessfully to close down Erdogan’s party in 2008 on grounds it contravened the country’s secular constitution.
