Democracy in Turkey undermined by DTP ban

6.01.00pm GMT Wed 20th Jan 2010

In a debate in the European Parliament on democratisation in Turkey with EU High Representative for foreign affairs Catherine Ashton, in the wake of last month's ban on the Kurdish Democracy and Society party (DTP), Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford will say:

"The need for urgent and substantial reform of the constitution to entrench human rights and democracy at the core of the Turkish state and society has been demonstrated yet again by the DTP ban. Although EU accession can act as leverage to ensure full democracy in Turkey, the country deserves this for itself."

"Radical change in the law governing political parties to make court bans more difficult must be part of such reform. A country where political parties can be outlawed at the drop of a hat is not a country that fosters democratic openness and the rule of law."

"It is greatly disappointing that Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP party have not criticised the ban on the DTP, considering that their own party narrowly escaped such a fate in 2008."

"While they might perceive narrow political advantage in the blow to an electoral rival, the ban completely undermines the search, to which they say they are attached, for a durable Kurdish political settlement within Turkey which would end the violence and misery, and indeed the attraction of the PKK."

ENDS

Note to editors

Sarah Ludford MEP is a patron of the Peace in Kurdistan campaign and is a long-time supporter of a political solution for the Kurdish question.