Kurds fight running battles with Turkish police
ANKARA, Turkey — Angry Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs Saturday to protest a decision by the country's top court to shut down a pro-Kurdish political party on charges of ties to militants.
The party's lawmakers said they would boycott parliament.
The party was banned Friday, a day after the main Kurdish rebel group claimed responsibility for killing seven Turkish soldiers in an ambush in central Turkey, an attack that outraged the country.
The ban and ensuing violence deepened uncertainty over efforts to end a conflict between the state and its largest ethnic minority.
A crowd pelted an armored police bus with stones as firebombs hit two other armored vehicles, briefly engulfing them in fire in the town of Yuksekova, close to the borders with Iraq and Iran, Dogan news agency video showed. Protesters blocked streets with barricades and burning tires. Police used water canons to mark the protesters with brightly colored water.
In neighboring Hakkari city, a mob attempted to lynch two police officers but were prevented by local Kurdish politicians, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Police detained about a dozen protesters, the area's governor said.
Protests took place elsewhere in the region and the western cities of Ankara and Izmir, Anatolia said.
Democratic Society Party chairman Ahmet Turk said the remaining 19-seat group had withdrawn and would not attend sessions of the 550-seat assembly. The party had 21 seats but the court Friday expelled Turk and another legislator from the assembly.
The political turmoil has jeopardized a government project to reconcile with minority Kurds in the hopes of ending the fight with Kurdish rebels who have been labeled terrorists by the West. The party has resisted calls from Turkish politicians to label the guerrillas as such.
The European Union has expressed concern over the ban, saying in a statement that "while strongly denouncing violence and terrorism, the presidency recalls that the dissolution of political parties is an exceptional measure that should be used with utmost restraint."
The court said in its ruling that the party had ties to the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has fought for autonomy from the Turkish state since 1984.
The court also barred Turk and legislator Aysel Tugluk from joining any political party for five years along with 35 other party members, including Leyla Zana, a prominent Kurd who served a decade in prison on charges of separatism.
"What else can the court do when there are party administrators who declare the terrorist organization to be their reason of existence," the Anatolia news agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying during a visit to Montenegro.
The court has shut down several Kurdish party on similar charges in the past. The predecessor of the Democratic Society Party had dissolved itself in 2005. The party is the 27th to be shut down in Turkey since 1968.
Associated Press Writer Ceren Kumova in Ankara contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Turkey's constitutional court has banned the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the country's largest pro-Kurdish political party. The court found it guilty on Friday of supporting violence and being linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, a Kurdish rebel group better known as the PKK.

The move has sparked violent protests across the country and caused the DTP to announce a boycott of parliament.

The party's two leaders, Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk, were banned from politics for five years and expelled from the Turkish parliament. On Saturday, Türk announced that the remainder of DTP's parliament members would also pull out. They had held 21 seats out of a total of 550.


The verdict comes as the government is attempting to bring an end to 25 years of fighting with the Kurdish rebels, and follows weeks of intensified ethnic violence. 

The judges of Turkey's constitutional court took only three days of deliberating over the evidence to unanimously rule that the DTP was guilty of inciting hatred and violence and was linked to the PKK. Haşim Kılıç, the head of the court, explained their decision.

Flag of the PKK

"No party has the right to utilize discourse and activities that contain terror, violence and pressure. A party should separate activities and discourses that contain violence and terror from the peaceful ones", he said.

Speaking shortly after the ruling, Türk condemned the court's decision.


"This deepens the desperation", he says. "This is a reality. But we are hopeful that Turkey will find its peace one day. But by closing a political party you can't solve the problem. Turkey can only solve its problems through reason and dialog."

Kılıç acknowledged the ramifications of his decision:

"Some people will say this verdict will sabotage the peace process, but this case is two years old, and we are judges not politicians." He says no country in Europe would allow such a party to exist.

In justifying the ruling Kılıç also said they had studied similar cases in the European Union – in particular the closure by Spanish courts of the pro-Basque Batasuna party. But the EU later issued a statement that "while strongly denouncing violence and terrorism, the presidency recalls that the dissolution of political parties is an exceptional measure that should be used with utmost restraint."

Such concerns will likely affect Turkey's relations with the EU, which it is currently seeking to join. This is the 27th time a Turkish political party has been shut down since 1968.

Turkish president Abdullah Gül expressed his approval of the decision. Speaking during his visit to Montenegro, he asked: "What else can the court do when there are party administrators who declare the terrorist organization to be their reason of existence?" 

The PKK are listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkish authorities, the EU and the United States. They have been engaged in an armed struggle against the government since 1984. An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

The verdict comes after weeks of ethnic violence, in which Kurdish youths have been clashing with security forces across cities in Turkey's predominately Kurdish southeast. The demonstrations were in response to alleged mistreatment of Abdullah Öcalan, founder of the PKK, whilst in prison. A pro-Kurdish protester was shot dead in Diyarbakır last weekend, sparking further unrest. Turkish nationalists have also been demonstrating, following the killing of seven Turkish soldiers by the PKK in central Turkey on Monday.

Almost immediately following the verdict, violence erupted in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of the country between advocates of the party and Turkish riot police.