The pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP has been under pressure in Turkey for years.
A first application for a ban was rejected due to formal deficiencies.
But now it threatens to end.
Istanbul - The Turkish Constitutional Court has opened proceedings against the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP.
The court in Ankara on Monday unanimously accepted a lawsuit filed by the attorney general in early June, the state news agency Anadolu reported.
Among other things, the party is accused of separatism. HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar spoke of a "political campaign" against his party. The HDP is the second largest opposition party in parliament. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses her of being the extended arm of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the USA. Erdogan and his supporter, the head of the ultra-nationalist MHP, Devlet Bahceli, repeatedly refer to HDP politicians as terrorists. The HDP rejects terrorist connections.
Sancar described the step towards the ban as politically motivated and accused the Turkish leadership of hatred against his party. He referred to the attack on the HDP office in Izmir on Friday, in which an employee was killed. The government is targeting the party, he said. "The ban proceedings were opened at the end of a month-long political campaign." The indictment was not drawn up by the public prosecutor, but by the MHP and the presidential palace. The Constitutional Court should have rejected it and, by accepting it, had missed a "historic opportunity" for democracy, Sancar said.
The Green politicians Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir declared that the HDP prohibition procedure was a "political show trial of a judiciary by Erdogan's favor".
In the end, Erdogan's presidential palace, "which has successively abolished the independence of the judiciary," will decide the outcome of the proceedings.
Roth and Özdemir demanded "massive pressure" and sanctions from the German government and the EU against the Turkish government.
The HDP has been under pressure for years.
Thousands of its members are sitting in Turkish prisons, among other things because of terrorist allegations.
The party's former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas, has been detained since 2016.
The intended HDP ban is also seen as a concession to MHP boss Bahceli, who has long been calling for the party to be closed. President Erdogan should also have a look at possible early elections. These would normally only be held in 2023.
According to surveys, Erdogan is increasingly losing popular support; without the MHP, his Islamic-conservative ruling party, the AKP, would not have a majority in parliament in the current legislative period. It is likely that the parliamentary and presidential elections will be brought forward "if Erdogan the economic conditions seem ripe," writes Osman Can from the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP) in Berlin in an analysis. "But in order to win early elections, the HDP must be taken out of the game." In the last election three years ago, the HDP received 11.7 percent of the vote.
In the 850-page indictment, according to Anadolu, the public prosecutor appointed by Erdogan calls for a political ban on around 500 people in addition to the party's permanent ban.
The lawyer Mavis Aydin told the German Press Agency that the party did not know for which politicians this was being requested, because the indictment had not yet been served.
According to Anadolu, the Constitutional Court initially rejected an application to block the bank account.
According to experts, the process can now drag on for several months.
The constitutional court then decides with a two-thirds majority - so ten out of 15 judges would have to vote for a ban.
The public prosecutor's office had already filed an initial prosecution in March.
However, it was not accepted due to formal deficiencies.
dpa
