HDP co-chair responds to Bahceli who accuses high court of "aiding terrorism"

The co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey responded on Tuesday to ultra-nationalist party leader who said earlier in the day that the Constitutional Court is "aiding terrorism" by having accepted to review HDP's demand for the postponement of the court's decision in the closure case.

The Constitutional Court will review on Wednesday HDP's application for the ruling in the case to be announced after the elections.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said on Tuesday in his address to the parliamentary group:

"What will they be reviewing? What is it that they seek? Will the Constitutional Court also postpone the punishment for spilling the blood of our martyrs? HDP should be banned. This hotbed of separatists and terrorists should be urgently banned. It should be legally dealt with, a lock put on its door. The Constitutional Court's complicity in HDP's manipulation is not acceptable (...) The Constitutional Court's attempt to play for time means aiding terrorism."

HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said in response that Bahceli has "blackmailed" and "threatened" the court.

Addressing to HDP's parliamentary group in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Sancar said:

"He is threatening the Constitutional Court. He says, 'You are traitors if you do not reject HDP's application.' Now, how can a threat to the judiciary be more plain? And this should not be perceived as a threat merely by MHP. This is a reflection of the government's policy. This is the regime's policy. Everything they do, they do it together, and they will pay the price to the people together."

Four months to the presidential and parliamentary elections, HDP faces a closure case in the Constitutional Court, who might issue the decision a short before the elections. HDP's bank account that holds funds provided by the Treasury in the context of the financial support provided for political parties has already been blocked by a "precautionary" decision of the court.