In Turkey, the accounts of the third largest parliamentary party were frozen six months before the elections
The leader of the DPN accused the Turkish authorities of trying to put pressure on the opposition through the courts. This political force is the most popular in the Kurdish-populated regions in the east of the country. In the last election it got almost 12 per cent of the votes
Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled to block the bank accounts of the country’s third parliamentary party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). This was reported by Anadolu Agency.
Turkish authorities accuse the party of having links with Kurdish militias, which the country’s authorities accuse of terrorism. A Turkish court ruling says the party used its finances to finance terrorist activities.
The blockage took place on the eve of the parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in June this year. According to Turkish law, all parliamentary parties receive funding from the state, which is spent on the election campaign and the work of headquarters. Accounts that should have received state funding will be blocked. This month, the party was supposed to receive 179.8 million liras ($9.5 million) from the Turkish authorities.
The party itself denies the Turkish authorities’ accusations. Ebru Güney of the DPN told the Financial Times that the Turkish government is using the courts as a tool to put pressure on the opposition.
The DPP is a left-wing party that advocates protection of national minorities. It has traditionally won more votes in the east of the country, which has a large Kurdish population. In the last election in 2018, the party won 11.7 percent of the vote and 67 seats in parliament.
In mid-November, there was an explosion in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu neighborhood. Six people were killed. The Istanbul Prosecutor General’s Office qualified the incident as a terrorist attack. Authorities arrested a Syrian citizen born in 1999 on suspicion of committing a terrorist attack. The Syrian woman confessed during questioning that she was affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.