In the past few days, Turkish police have arrested over 30 Kurdish politicians. Several of which are democratically elected Mayors and members of Parliament. Jürgen Klute, a member of the party executive committee speaks on the matter (MdEP):

The campaign of Turkish authorities reached a new dimension on December 11th as the Turkish Constitutional Court announced a ban against the Kurdish “Party for a Democratic Society” (DTP) along with several political prohibitions of prominent Kurdish representatives.

A conditional requirement for Turkey’s acceptance into the EU is the recognition and implementation of the so called Copenhagen Criteria. This includes recognition of human rights throughout Turkey and a comprehensive democratization of the Turkish State and Turkish society.

The DTP had distanced itself from Kurdish separatism and no longer identified as a Kurdish party, rather a Turkish party. Their goal was to solve the Kurdish question through the democratization of Turkish society. The DTP worked particularly on the incorporation of their opinions of Shia based Alevi, Christians, and Unions through democratization. Proportionally, it was not only Kurds who were organized and active in the DTP. With this development, the DTP has made an important contribution to the advancement of Turkey toward admission into the EU.

The ban of the DTP and the increasing repression by Kurdish politicians robbed Turkish citizens of 2.5 million votes. Without a democratic legitimized Kurdish political contact and negotiator, there will be no satisfactory solution to the Kurdish question. Democratization demands the opening of the state in order to achieve any and all forward movement, and the reconciliation of the diverse population groups in Turkey- the opposite of the current escalations strategy.