HDP plans to continue activities in four leftist parties in case of shutdown

Duvar English 

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is planning to continue its activities within four leftist parties that are its components in the case that a court rules to shut it down, sources told Duvar. 

Turkey's Constitutional Court accepted an indictment filed by a top prosecutor seeking a ban on the HDP for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in June. 

The case follows a years-long crackdown on the HDP, in which thousands of its members have been tried on mainly terrorism-related charges. The party denies links to terrorism and describes the case as a "political operation."

The judges unanimously accepted the indictment from Turkey's top appeals court and it was sent to the HDP for its initial defense, which then asked for additional time to prepare it. 

The party will give its defense at the beginning of November and lawyers have been working extensively with the motto "We won't let the party be shut down," sources said. 

Party officials, meanwhile, are preparing for the worst-case scenario, saying that they won't leave politics and abandon voters. In line with that, the party said it chose alternatives to go on with its activities, which were determined as the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Socialist Refoundation Party (SYKP), Green Left Party (YSGP) and Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP). 

According to Turkey's Political Parties Law, a party needs to have formed its organizations in at least 41 provinces six months ahead of the elections and carried out its major congresses in order to compete. The said four leftist parties have also ramped up their efforts to form organizations, sources said.