Kurdish MPs to stay in Turkey parliament

ANKARA: Deputies from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party decided to stay in parliament despite a court decision to ban their movement, its banned leader said yesterday, removing a potential source of political instability. The 19 deputies had been expected to resign in protest at the Constitutional Court verdict last week in a move which could have led to by-elections in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

The decision is likely to be a relief for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose efforts to solve the long-running Kurdish conflict were undermined by a court ruling that was seen as a blow by the nationalist establishment against his reforms.

“The most important thing to us is our democratic effort. Our voters and nation have asked us to stay in parliament,” Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Turk, who himself was banned from politics for five years, told a news conference.

Turk, whose party was found guilty of links to separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, said jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had also called for them to remain in parliament via his lawyers this week.

Kurds, who make up some 20 percent of Turkey’s 70 million population, have long complained of discrimination and were forbidden from using their language for decades. The European Union has criticized the court ruling, which was seen as potentially damaging to the secular Muslim country’s faltering bid to join the bloc. Erdogan also was critical of the ban, saying on principle he was against closing parties.

Turkish financial markets showed no initial reaction, but it was seen removing a source of uncertainty ahead of 2011 parliamentary polls.