Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party has condemned a court ruling that ousted the leadership of the main opposition CHP last week, calling a police operation to evict the leaders from the party’s headquarters a “disgrace to democracy.”
Riot police fired tear gas and forced their way into the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) headquarters in Ankara on Sunday, evicting ousted leader Ozgur Ozel, whose party has rejected the ruling as a “judicial coup” and vowed to fight it.
Joining smaller opposition parties’ criticism of the appeals court ruling as anti-democratic, the DEM – parliament’s third-biggest party – denounced the ruling and Sunday’s police intervention.
Speaking to reporters after visiting Ozel in parliament, DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan called the police action “shameful and unacceptable”, saying the handling of the incident by security forces was “a disgrace to democracy and a scandal for the rule of law.”
“The fate of political parties should not be determined by courts; it should be determined by their members and the choices of their voters,” Bakirhan added.
