ISTANBUL: Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said on Friday it would keep campaigning under a different banner if a court outlawed its current organization over alleged links to militants.
Officials told Reuters this week that Turkey’s top appeals court had launched an enquiry into the HDP, the third largest party in parliament, in a step that could ultimately lead to a ban.
“We as the HDP have B and C plans of course. If the HDP is shut down of course we have our own preparations. We come from such a tradition which has always had parties being shut down,” HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan told a meeting with foreign media.
“We have until now continued to fight on by establishing other parties after a party is shut down. It will be like that in the future,” she said, without providing further details.
The HDP has dismissed accusations that it is linked to militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and EU.
Turkish authorities have arrested thousands of HDP party officials and ousted dozens of its elected mayors and lawmakers in a crackdown in recent years.
The pressure on the HDP intensified last month after Ankara said the PKK had executed 13 prisoners, including Turkish military and police personnel, during an army operation to rescue them in Iraq’s Gara region.
The moves against the HDP came as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK Party came to power since 2002, announced on Tuesday an “action plan” to boost human rights.
Pro-Kurdish party says it will regroup if hit by court ban
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Pro-Kurdish party says it will regroup if hit by court ban
- Turkish authorities have arrested thousands of HDP party officials and ousted dozens of its elected mayors and lawmakers in a crackdown in recent years
Katz orders West Bank raid after deadly attack in Israel
- Friday’s stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel triggered the minister’s action
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday ordered the military to launch an operation in the village of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank after it emerged that a Palestinian who killed two people came from there.
The minister instructed the Israeli forces to “act forcefully and immediately against the village of Qabatiya, from which the murderous terrorist emerged, in order to locate and thwart every terrorist and strike the village’s terror infrastructure,” Katz’s office said in a statement.
“Anyone who aids terrorism or sponsors and backs it will pay the full price,” it added.
BACKGROUND
Friday’s attack comes just days after Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the Qabatiya area.
The military said in a separate statement that it was preparing to begin an operation in Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, which has seen repeated violent incidents.
Friday’s stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel triggered the minister’s action.
The assault came a day after an Israeli military reservist dressed in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the war in Gaza began.
“Preliminary investigation indicates this was a rolling terror attack that began in the city of Beit Shean, where a pedestrian was run over,” Israeli police said in a statement about Friday’s attack, adding that the victim was a 68-year-old man.
“Later, a young woman was stabbed near Road 71, and the suspect was ultimately engaged with gunfire near Maonot Junction in Afula following intervention by a civilian bystander,” it said, adding that the attacker was taken to hospital.
Both victims succumbed to the injuries, Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said in a statement.
MDA also reported that a 16-year-old was slightly injured when “hit by a vehicle.
The Israeli military said the attacker had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago.”
President Isaac Herzog condemned the attack.
Friday’s attack comes just days after Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the Qabatiya area.
The military has launched an investigation into the incident after footage emerged showing the teenager not posing any threat or throwing anything at soldiers who shot him.
The attack on Friday also came a day after an Israeli military reservist dressed in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man in the
West Bank.
In videos on social media purporting to show that incident, the victim is seen praying by the roadside when the soldier rams him with his vehicle.
