A Turkish state prosecutor opened an inquiry targeting the chairman of a banned Kurdish party on Tuesday after he said that a jailed militant separatist leader advised the party's legislators to stay in parliament.

The Constitutional Court banned the Democratic Society Party (DTP) on 11 December because of its ties with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which wants a separate Kurdish state.
 

The ruling was criticised by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the European Commission. It also caused days of unrest in the southeast of the European Union candidate country.
 

The ban on the DTP led to investor unease over political instability in Turkey as it raised the possibility of a series of by elections at a time when polls show support for the government is sagging, with a general election due by mid 2011.
 

DTP legislators, however, announced last Friday that they would stay in parliament by joining another Kurdish party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Abdullah Ocalan
The DTP's former chairman Ahmet Turk said that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had conveyed, via lawyers, his opposition to DTP legislators quitting parliament.
 

The Ankara State Prosecutors' Office said in a statement that it had opened a judicial inquiry based on allegations that Turk had glorified criminals and their acts and encouraged hatred in society, state run Anatolia news agency reported.
 

Erdogan has vowed to stick with plans, opposed by nationalists, to boost Kurdish rights in a bid to end a 25 year old conflict with the PKK that has cost 40,000 lives and to assist with the nation's bid for EU membership.
 

His Islamist rooted AK Party is locked in a long struggle with nationalist and secular forces, whose power bases are the military and the judiciary.

Government unease
An investigation into an alleged conspiracy by members of the military to topple the government has caused unease within the armed forces, which have staged four coups since 1960.
 

Investors are monitoring developments closely. Financial markets have been unsettled several times in the course of the investigation into the "Ergenekon" plot.
 

The Constitutional Court went to the brink of banning the AK party in 2008 for contravening Turkey's secular constitution.
 

Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey's population of 71 million people, were for decades forbidden to use their language and have long complained of discrimination.
 

The BDP is the seventh Kurdish political party to be founded in Turkey. Its six predecessors have been closed.
 

Source: Reuters