January 5, 2023 – 3:52 PM
Six months before the presidential elections, the Turkish court withdrew support for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) on the grounds that it supported Kurdish freedom fighters, that is, terrorists.
In 2023, the party would have received 539 million lira from the Turkish state treasury, which is roughly equivalent to 10 billion HUF. Another source of income for the party, which also campaigns to represent Kurdish interests, is donations. It is not known how much government funding makes up the party’s budget.
The HDP is the third largest party in the country, holding fifty-six of the six hundred parliamentary mandates. Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the party of being the political wing of the outlawed militants. The HDP denies the existence of anything close to the Kurdish freedom fighters, and Thursday’s court decision was compared to freezing their assets.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court is currently debating whether to ban the party ahead of the elections. If they decide in favor of a ban, the party will have to be dissolved or some of its members will be barred from doing so.
Just a month ago, one of Erdogan’s main rivals, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, was sentenced to prison.
In this article, we have written in more detail about the upcoming Turkish elections and how Erdogan is working to consolidate his power in the country.
