Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DTP deputies decide to resign

The 19 deputies of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party, or DTP, decided during an emergency strategy assembly on Monday to resign from the Turkish Parliament, DTP co-leader Ahmet Türk said after the party convened in Diyarbakır.

Their pending resignations spark yet more political uncertainty in the country, as the resignations must be approved by Parliament’s general assembly before deputies are allowed to step down.

According to the Turkish Constitution, if the number of empty seats in Parliament exceeds 5 percent of the total number of deputies, then a by-election is needed. Because all 19 deputies from the party resigned, there is the possibility of a by-election – if Parliament accepts the resignations.

The party’s meeting in Diyarbakır and the deputies’ decision to resign came days after it was shut down by the Constitutional Court on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish military in the country’s Southeast for more than two decades.