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Turkey's Constitutional Court has voted to ban the country's largest pro-Kurdish party
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vokradio.com,Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Turkey's Constitutional Court has voted to ban the country's largest pro-Kurdish party
December 11, 2009
Turkey's chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya argued that the Democratic Society Party (DTP) took orders from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The DTP is the latest in a series of pro-Kurdish parties to have been closed down in Turkey.
The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, expressed concern over Friday's ruling.
"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 EU's Swedish presidency said in a
statement reported by Reuters.
The 11 judges in
Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that the DTP had become a "focal
point of activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the
country and the nation", court president Hasim Kilic told reporters.
He
said DTP leaders Ahmet Turk and Aysel Tugluk had been stripped of
parliamentary immunity and banned from politics for five years along
with 35 other party members.
All party assets would be seized by the treasury, Mr Kilic added.
The DTP holds 21 seats in Turkey's 550-member parliament.
See the original text at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8408903.stm
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