Sunday, December 13, 2009

Turkey: Turkey's pro-Kurdish party vows boycott

FOCUS Information Agency - Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party banned by the constitutional court for having links to armed separatist fighters has said its legislators will boycott parliamentary sessions, Al Jazeera informs.

Ahmet Turk, the chairman of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and one of two pro-Kurdish legislators who were expelled from parliament, said on Saturday the entire group had withdrawn from the assembly.

"Our group has withdrawn from the parliament effective today," Turk said.

The Kurdish party had a total of 21 seats in the 550-seat assembly before the constitutional court shut it down on Friday.

The court found the party guilty of co-operating with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in a conflict that has lasted 25 years and claimed 40,000 lives.

Angered by the ban, Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs on Saturday in the town of Yuksekova, close to the borders with Iraq and Iran, Dogan news agency video showed.
In neighbouring Hakkari city, a mob attempted to lynch two police officers but were prevented by local Kurdish politicians, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

Turkey's Kurdish population, whose language was outlawed for years, has long complained of discrimination.

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