Diyarbakır Bar applies to Constitutional Court against HDP closure case

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The Diyarbakır Bar has appealed to the Constitutional Court, which has accepted the indictment of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation seeking the closure of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and requesting a ban on politics for 451 HDP politicians.

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the Diyarbakır Bar Association has made an application to the top court as a "Amicus Curiae" (friend of the court), which can be roughly defined as the legal brief where someone who is not a party to a case assists a court by offering information, expertise or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.

Reminding the Constitutional Court of the duty and mission of bar associations in general and the Diyarbakır Bar in particular, Eren has shared information about the preparation phase of the indictment and its details and emphasized the importance of political parties in democracies.

Underlining that political parties assume an imperative/necessary role in ensuring pluralism and a properly functioning democracy, he has said, "It needs to be acknowledged that political parties represent a fundamental form of organization to ensure that democracy duly functions."

Referring specifically to Turkey within the context of closed political parties so far, Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Nahit Eren has recalled that since the early 1990s, political parties have been widely and systematically closed upon the applications of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation and the rulings of the Constitutional Court.

Eren has cited the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and stressed that in all of the rulings against the party closures, except for the case of Welfare Party (RP), have ended in rulings of violation of "freedom of association" and "right to elect and to be elected".

Accordingly, he has requested that the case seeking the closure of the HDP and a ban on 451 HDP politicians from politics be rejected.

CLICK - Constitutional Court accepts indictment seeking HDP's closure

The first indictment to close the HDP was returned by the Constitutional Court to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation on the anniversary of the last local elections on March 31. The reason for returning the indictment was that "it did not have legal characteristics."

With minor changes, the second indictment seeking the closure of the party was submitted to the top court on June 7 and having examined the indictment in the light of a report prepared by the rapporteur of the case, the Constitutional Court accepted the second indictment on June 21. (EMK/SD)