AFP / Adem Altan | Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), addresses the Turkish parliament in Ankara on July 28, 2015

Turkish prosecutors on Thursday opened a probe into the leader of Turkey's main Kurdish party over accusations that he “provoked and armed” protesters during demonstrations in the country’s southeast last year, local media reported.

Advertising Read more

The investigation into the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas was launched by prosecutors in the mostly Kurdish province of Diyarbakir, the official Anatolia news agency reported, with the politician facing up to 24 years in jail if the case comes to court.

Dozens were killed in eastern Turkey last October after Kurds rioted over what they saw as the government’s refusal to help Syrian Kurds fighting the Islamic State group in the besieged Syrian town of Kobane just over Turkey’s southern border.

The probe refers to a statement made by the executive committee of the HDP on October 6, 2014, urging its supporters to take to the streets to protest the policies of the Turkish government in Syria.

According to the official toll, 35 people including two police were killed in three days of rioting across the country.

Demirtas has been accused by Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan of links to Kurdish militants, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with whom the Turkish government is currently in the midst of a quickly unravelling peace process.

Erdogan urged parliament this week to lift the immunity from prosecution of politicians with suspected links to “terrorist groups” in what was seen as a thinly veiled reference to the HDP.

Demirtas: electoral success ‘our only crime’

Earlier Thursday, Erdogan launched a fierce personal attack on Demirtas, telling him to "know his place" and referring to the presence of his elder brother Nurettin among the PKK fighters in Iraq.

"He would run there (too) if he found the opportunity," Erdogan said on a visit to China.

EN MG PKG TURKEY ELEX

it

Demirtas, whose party upset Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a strong performance in June 7 elections, has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Turkish president of targeting the HDP in revenge for its electoral success.

“We have committed no unforgiveable crimes. Our only crime was winning 13 percent of vote,” he told his group in parliament on Tuesday.

The investigation comes as Turkey presses on with air strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq – a move that has brought a fragile peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdish militant group to a virtual collapse.

Turkish officials have said the actions taken regarding the PKK are a direct response to increased militant violence in recent weeks, including a series of targeted killings of police officers and soldiers blamed on the Kurdish militant group.

Erdogan initiated negotiations in 2012 to try to end the PKK insurgency, largely fought in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast and which has killed 40,000 people since 1984. A ceasefire, though fragile, had been holding since March 2013.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe