A top prosecutor on Monday requested that the Constitutional Court of Türkiye block the accounts belonging to the People's Democratic Party (HDP), a party Ankara says has links to the PKK terrorist group, as part of the ongoing lawsuit for the closure of the party.

Bekir Şahin, the chief public prosecutor of Türkiye's Supreme Court, also known as the Court of Cassation, filed the indictment in March 2021. He is accusing HDP leaders and members of acting in a way that flouts the democratic and universal rules of law, colluding with the PKK and affiliated groups, and aiming to destroy and eliminate the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation. He has been calling for the party to be banned from all state financial support and for a political ban on its members, including its former leaders.

Şahin sent his request to the high court on Monday demanding that the HDP's bank accounts where it receives funds from the Treasury should be "urgently" blocked for the duration of the case.

He repeated that the HDP has "organic ties" to the PKK terrorist organization and uses the funds in line with the aims of the group.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in Türkiye, along with the United States and the European Union.

Şahin is set to give his opinion to the Constitutional Court on Jan. 10, 2023, about the details of the closure case. The court in the meantime will evaluate his request. Then, the HDP will be allowed time to prepare a verbal defense against Şahin’s opinion.

After the judiciary clerk compiles all the documents of the case, all 15 members of the court will reach a conclusion following a series of assessments on whether the party will be shut down as per the circumstances listed in Article 69 of the Constitution or stripped entirely or partially of government funding. A verdict is only possible if two-thirds of the court members, i.e. 10 of them, reach a majority vote.

Should the Constitutional Court rule to close the HDP, persons facing the verdict will not be permitted to be founders, members, directors and supervisors of another party for five years.

It is unclear whether a final verdict could come before presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for no later than June 2023 in the country.

‘No difference between HDP, PKK’

The HDP is generally blamed for becoming the focal point of actions in violation of the Turkish state’s "unbreakable unity" and having an "active role in providing personnel to the PKK."

Among the past remarks of party leaders proving the close ties to the terrorist group is a statement from HDP co-Chair Pervin Buldan who confessed to previous contact and communication between the party and the terrorist group and praised jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and his role in the foundation of the party by rejecting the fact that the PKK is a terrorist group.

Figen Yüksekdağ, a former co-chair of the party, during a speech in 2015 said that they lean on the PKK's Syrian branch, the YPG, and other related groups.

One of the party's former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş, in another speech in 2012 also said that they would build a statue of Öcalan, whose posters were many times found in local HDP offices. The images of Öcalan and pro-PKK slogans during the party meetings constitute other proof of the close ties in the indictment.

Moreover, the HDP has many times drawn ire for transferring taxpayer money and funds to the PKK. HDP mayors and local officials have been found to misuse funds in support of the PKK and provide jobs to the terrorist group's sympathizers. Its mayors have been accused of undermining municipal services, allowing the PKK to dig ditches in the streets and launch attacks on police and soldiers when the terrorist group adopted an urban warfare strategy in July 2015 and ended a two-year reconciliation period. HDP municipalities and their staff were also found to be actively participating in terrorist attacks launched after July 2015.

The party's role in the riots of Oct. 6-7, 2014, was also included in the indictment. In October 2014, amid a Daesh siege on the YPG, on Ain al-Arab – or Kobani – Demirtaş and other HDP officials called for riots. In the events that would become known as the Oct. 6-7 Kobani protests, 31 people were killed and some 350 others were injured in clashes between pro-PKK and conservative Kurdish groups and security forces throughout Turkey, especially in the southeast. During the violence, 16-year-old Yasin Börü was brutally murdered by the terrorist group's supporters in southeastern Diyarbakır when he was distributing meat to poor families. Following the events, more than 1,600 investigations were launched, 894 suspects were detained and 386 of them were imprisoned. Eighteen of the 41 suspects were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Börü and his friends.

Holding the party responsible for their children's abduction or recruitment by the PKK, Kurdish families have also been staging a sit-in protest in front of the party's southeastern Diyarbakır provincial office for more than a year.

Most recently, despite equating the HDP with the PKK, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) last month paid a visit to the party over a proposed constitutional amendment on the headscarf issue, raising eyebrows from the opposition. AK Party’s People’s Alliance partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli ultimately described the visit as a "perfectly natural and right" move since it was a political consultation meeting with a party that still formally holds its parliamentary status.