Turkey's main Kurdish political party is to withdraw its members from parliament following the country's highest court ruling permanently banning the party. Leader of the party, Ahmet Turk, made the statement during a televised news conference from his party's headquarters. Yesterday judges on the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously to shut down the Democratic Society Party, or DTP because of alleged links with Kurdish separatist rebels. The court ruling stripped the party's co-chairs, Turk and Aysel Tugluk, of their parliamentary seats and banned them from political activity for the next five years. Turk said the court's decision was a political one and blamed the ruling party for staying silent as his party was being stripped of power.<br/>