Turkish far-right leader vows to confront Constitutional Court on 'judgment day' for not closing HDP

Duvar English

Turkish government’s far-right ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Oct. 17 once again lambasted the Constitutional Court for not closing down the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its successors during his speech at the parliament.

Bahçeli accused the president and justices of the top court of backing terrorism and stated that they would sue them in the “god’s court during judgment day.” According to Islamic belief, there will be a judgment court where people will be resurrected after death and gathered to face accountability for their actions on earth.

A lawsuit was filed against HDP at the Constitutional Court in 2021 on the charge of "aiming to disrupt and abolish the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation." 

Bahçeli criticized the court for not reaching a decision and described allowing party members to run for elections under a different party name in the 2023 elections as "a mockery of Turkish justice and the Turkish nation.”

HDP politicians used the Green Left Party (YSP) as a backup during the general elections against the threat of the HDP’s closure. Lately, the YSP also changed its name and administration and formed the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP).

"President and members of the Constitutional Court, I ask you directly, when do you think of recognizing the disgraces that have been happening? Do you not know that delayed justice is not justice? The Constitutional Court establishing a connection with Qandil, sheltering terrorists, is absolutely incompatible with legal dignity and the honor of democracy,” Bahçeli stated.

The far-right leader and Turkish government claimed that Kurdish politicians have close ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is centered in the Qandil Mountains near the Iraq-Iran border. 

Bahçeli also called for the immediate closure of the HDP and all parties of the same political affiliation and not to allow them to be reopened.

The Constitutional Court accepted the indictment against the HDP in June 2021 after a years-long crackdown under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's rule in which thousands of HDP members have been tried on mainly terrorism-related charges.

Previously, Bahçeli referred to the Constitutional Court as the "backyard of the separatist terrorist organization" while mentioning its ruling to lift the decision to freeze the HDP's bank accounts. The AYM "is not the court of the Turkish nation," Bahçeli added to his remarks.