Erdogan backs criminal probe

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends the opening session of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, November 30, 2015.          REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

TURKEY – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he backs a criminal investigation into leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition over comments about Kurdish self-rule, saying those who committed constitutional crimes must pay the price. A Turkish prosecutor opened an investigation into Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), last week after a two-day congress of Kurdish groups called for greater self-governance. The probe comes as predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey experiences some of its worst violence since the 1990s after a two-year ceasefire between Kurdish militants and the state collapsed in July.(Reuters)…[+]