Pro-Kurdish party takes Turkish ban to ECHR

21/01/2010

STRASBOURG, France -- A member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) on Wednesday (January 20th) filed suit at the European Court of Human Rights over Turkey's Constitutional Court decision to outlaw the Democratic Society Party (DTP). The pro-Kurdish DTP was banned last month for alleged links to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). During a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, BDP member Hasip Kaplan insisted there are no legal grounds to ban the DTP. "Turkey has closed its 27th political party; it has entered the Guinness Book of Records for closing political parties," he said. (Zaman - 21/01/10; CNN Turk, DPA, BTA - 20//01/10)

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