Nationalist party leader calls on high court to file closure case against HDP

ANKARA

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli has asked the Supreme Court of Appeals’ Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to file a closure case against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), based on the indictment of the Oct. 6-8 Kobane protests accepted by the Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court.

In a statement on Jan. 11, Bahçeli said that otherwise, as the MHP, they will “do what is necessary.”

The Kobane incidents were part of a “scenario to divide” Turkey, Bahçeli stated.

“The HDP should pay the price of the Oct. 6-8 incidents, the trench terrorism and being a host to separatism before the law, nation and history,” he said.

“The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals will be able to open the urgently needed closure case against the HDP, especially based on the indictment drafted regarding the Oct. 6-8 incidents, which is legally an open notice,” Bahçeli stated.

If the court case is delayed, they “will do what is necessary as per the 100th article of the Political Parties Law, when the time comes,” he added.

Last week, the penal court approved indictment for 108 defendants, including HDP ex-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, as part of a probe into deadly 2014 Kobane incidents across the nation.

The indictment filed by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara is calling for 38 counts of life sentences without parole against 108 defendants.

Former HDP co-leaders Figen Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş are currently imprisoned on terror-related charges and are among suspects on trial.

The charges included 37 cases of homicide and disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state. Of the defendants, 27 are in jail pending trial, 75 have arrest warrants against them, and six were detained and then released with judicial measures.

The events of 2014 were sparked by the seizure of the Syrian town of Kobane by ISIL fighters and turned violent across Turkey after the YPG group- the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terror group- in the town accused the Turkish government of being inactive against the group’s attacks.

Article 100 of the Political Parties Law, to which Bahçeli refers, regulates how and who can file a lawsuit against political parties. According to the article in question, it is stipulated that on the request of the Supreme Court’s chief public prosecutor, justice minister or a political party, an ex officio can be sued for the closure of a political party.