Monday, December 07, 2009

DTP Case: Justice vs Logic

Serap Eser, 17, was waiting for her bus on November 8. The bus stop was just a mile away from my home. Right after her bus arrived, a few PKK militants attacked it with molotov cocktails. She was seriously injured with horrendous burns.

After 29 days in coma, Serap has died today. PKK has claimed one more civilian life in Istanbul.
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Turkey's Constitutional Court will hear a case to shut down the country's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) tomorrow.

From a political point of view, the closure of DTP will be counter-productive for Turkey.

But should the judiciary regard the political climate?

Does the justice change according to environmental conditions?

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When it was first founded, I was hopeful that DTP could be a part of the solution for the Kurdish problem in Turkey. Unfortunately, with their increasingly destructive nationalism, they proved that I was wrong.

Take the recent remarks of DTP leader Ahmet Türk. Now they're so ruthless to explicitly defend the PKK, a terrorist organization according to Turkey, the EU and the United States.

DTP shamelessly tries to legitimize the PKK and I guess that any state in the world would shut down such a political party with obvious links to a terror organization.

Remember Spain and ANV, for instance.

The justice, the legal system and any kind of laws say that DTP should be closed.
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The political logic may say that DTP should not be shut down, but from a legal point of view, its closure was justified long ago.

I don't think that single events should effect legal decisions, but Serap's death may have a normal impact, especially if we remember the spine-chilling reactions of DTP officials after the molotov cocktail attack:

"Some kids see the pressure against their families and organize such actions. We never want such molotov coctail attacks, but the police should also not use tear gas against protesting crowds."

This is the sick, eye-for-an-eye logic of DTP, which can now be doubtlessly defined as the political wing of PKK.

And this why it is legal to shut it down, whether it is good for political stability or not.