14/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has denounced the ban by the Constitutional Court of Turkey on one of the main Kurdish parties in the country, the Democratic People's Party, HADEP. The spokesperson for Mr Verheugen said the Commission is "particularly concerned" by this verdict and that it doubts it is compatible with the "pluralism that is a feature of modern democracy". Dutch Green member Joost Lagendijk, Co-Chair of the Joint EU-Turkey Parliamentary Committee, also criticised this ruling, which shows, he says, that "repression of political freedoms has not ended in Turkey". Turkey's Constitutional Court banned HADEP accusing it of having "aided and encouraged a terrorist organisation", the Party of Kurdish Workers (PKK). DEHAP, the twin formation of HADEP, could also be banned. HADEP rejects these accusations and announced, on Friday, that it intends to refer the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.