A step backwards politically

The ban on Turkey's main Kurdish party is bad news for Turkey's development, the daily Der Standard writes critically: "Having the DTP in parliament is by no means dangerous; it's a basic prerequisite for peace. But the judiciary allowed itself to be intimidated by the terrorism of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party], which obviously is not seeking peace. The ban on the party is a political judgement that not only regresses the country's Kurdish policy by years, it also represents a step backwards in the entire democratisation process. Banning a party like the DTP means restricting political freedoms. The verdict is testimony to a lacking understanding of democracy on the part of the Turkish judiciary. It calls to mind previous party bans and times that were supposed to have been relegated to the past. But the Erdoğan government has bowed in the face of nationalist rhetoric. It has already steered a zigzag path when it comes to its policy on the Kurds in the past."

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