Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Monday for national unity after a court ban on the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, caused angry protests and plunged the country into political uncertainty.

The court’s decision has lead to three days of rioting around the country. Most of the violence has been focused on the predominantly Kurdish southeast, but on Sunday Kurds and Turks faced off in the centre of Istanbul when police and Turkish nationalists confronted Kurdish protestors in the city’s busy Beyoglu shopping district.
 

Protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at shops, cars and businesses in the heart of Turkey's biggest city, before a group of nationalists gathered and tried to attack them.
 

Riot police separated the groups and dispersed protestors, in what was a third day of violent street protest since Turkey's highest court ruled to dissolve the DTP, dealing a blow to government efforts to end decades of conflict in the EU candidate country.
 

Late on Sunday police had closed the street leading to the main DTP office in Istanbul and a police armoured vehicle stood guard.
 

In the southeast of Turkey, demonstrators hurled fire bombs and rocks at riot police in the town of Yuksekova. Police shot into the air to disperse the crowds, and several protesters were arrested.
 

Turkey's constitutional court on Friday banned the DTP after it found it guilty of cooperating with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.
 

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. It has fought for 25 years for an independent Kurdish state and thousands of Kurds, Turks and Turkish armed forces have been killed in the conflict.
 

The PKK has recently dropped the demand for independence in favour of greater rights for Kurds who for decades were forbidden from using their own language. The organization is also demanding the release of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in 1999 and imprisoned by the Turkish authorities ever since.
 

Friday’s ruling threatens to undermine Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party's drive to reconcile minority Kurds with the state and end decades of conflict.
 

Mustafa Akyol is deputy editor of the English language newspaper, the Turkish Daily News and author of Rethinking The Kurdish Question: What Went Wrong? What Next?, published in Turkish in 2006.
 

In an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Akyol said that although the Court’s ruling was not intended to be political it is a “serious blow to the Kurdish political movement in Turkey.”
 

“Turkey’s laws make the propagation of terrorism a crime and reason for party closure. They followed those rules. They gave a legal decision, but a legal decision that was not politically helpful, in my point of view.”

You can listen to the full interview with Mustafa Akyol here:
 

download.omroep.nl/rnw/smac/cms/interview_with_mustafa_akyol___tdn_20091214_44_1kHz.mp3