Turkey's Constitutional Court cannot return a Supreme Court of Appeals indictment on the closure of the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for a second time, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli said Tuesday.
Speaking at his party's group meeting in the capital Ankara, Bahçeli said: "All the organs of this separatist party have committed crimes and incited crimes. The Constitutional Court has no option of extradition for the second time. Turkey cannot lose the tremendous superiority it has gained against terrorism in the homeland and beyond the borders in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), and no one can serve this loss."
"Closing the HDP is now a matter of law. It should be closed, not to be opened," he added.
On the other hand, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Tuesday called the move by the judiciary as "politically-motivated" and said that they are "destroying the democracy."
Turkey's chief prosecutor refiled an indictment seeking the dissolution of the HDP on Monday. In response, the Constitutional Court assigned a rapporteur to the case on Tuesday.
The indictment calls the HDP an undemocratic party that colludes with the terrorist group PKK and seeks to destroy the unity of the state.
The indictment was previously returned by the Constitutional Court due to missing details.
Bekir Şahin, the chief public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, refiled the 850-page indictment in the Constitutional Court, and it was sent to the Supreme Court, also called the Court of Cassation. The indictment asks for a political ban on nearly 500 party members and a suspension of the party's bank account.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women and children.
