Back Halkların Demokratik Partisi ALS حزب الشعوب الديمقراطي Arabic حزب الشعوب الديموقراطى ARZ Xalqların Demokratik Partiyası (Türkiyə) Azerbaijani Halkların Demokratik Partisi BAR Демократична партия на народите Bulgarian জনতা গণতান্ত্রিক দল (তুরস্ক) Bengali/Bangla Partit Democràtic del Poble Catalan پارتی دیموکراتی گەلان CKB Lidově demokratická strana Czech

Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey)

"Democratic Party of the Peoples" redirects here. For other uses, see People's Democratic Party (disambiguation) and Democratic People's Party (disambiguation).
Peoples' Democratic Party
Halkların Demokratik Partisi
AbbreviationHDP[1]
ChairwomanSultan Özcan
ChairmanCahit Kırkazak
SpokespersonEbru Günay[2]
Founded15 October 2012 (2012-10-15)[3]
Preceded byPeace and Democracy Party
Merged intoPeoples' Equality and Democracy Party (de facto)
HeadquartersBüklüm Sokağı 117
06680 Çankaya, Ankara[4]
Membership (2024)Decrease 19,855[5]
Ideology

Democratic socialism[10]
Secularism[11]
Progressivism[12]
Social democracy[11]
Left-wing populism[13]
Regionalism[17]
Feminism[18]

Political positionCentre-left[19] to left-wing[20]
National affiliationPeoples' Democratic Congress
Labour and Freedom Alliance (Since 2022)
European affiliationParty of European Socialists (associate)[21]
International affiliationProgressive Alliance[22]
Socialist International (consultative)[23]
Colours  Purple   Green
SloganBu daha başlangıç
("This is Just the Beginning")[24] "Biz'ler meclise"[25]
Party flag
Flag of the Peoples' Democratic Party
Website
hdp.org.tr/en/

The Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkish: Halkların Demokratik Partisi, acronymized as HDP; Kurdish: Partiya Demokratîk a Gelan[26]), or Democratic Party of the Peoples, is a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. Generally left-wing, the party places a strong emphasis on participatory and radical democracy, feminism, minority rights, youth rights, and egalitarianism. It is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES),[27] a consultative member of the Socialist International,[28] and a party within the Progressive Alliance (PA).[29]

Aspiring to fundamentally challenge the existing Turkish–Kurdish divide and other existing parameters in Turkish politics, the HDP was founded in 2012 as the political wing of the Peoples' Democratic Congress, a union of numerous left-wing movements that had previously fielded candidates as independents to bypass the 10% election threshold. The HDP is in an alliance with the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), often described as the HDP's fraternal party. From 2013 to 2015, the politicians of the DBP participated in peace negotiations between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The party operates a co-presidential system of leadership, with one chairman and one chairwoman.[30] In the 2014 presidential election, the party put forward its chairman, Selahattin Demirtaş, who won 9.77% of the vote. Despite concerns that it could fall short of the 10% election threshold, the party put forward party-lists instead of running independent candidates in the subsequent June 2015 general election. Exceeding expectations, it polled at 13.12%, becoming the third largest parliamentary group. The party briefly participated in the interim election government formed by AKP Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 28 August 2015, with HDP MPs Ali Haydar Konca and Müslüm Doğan becoming the Minister of European Union Affairs and the Minister of Development respectively. The party governs the municipalities in which they have won the elections in a co-mayoralty constituted by a woman and a man.[31]

Witnessing the 2016 Turkish coup attempt and pointing out previous repression of democratic forces by martial powers, the HDP strongly opposed the coup. The HDP was first ignored and left out of the post-coup national truce while the Turkish purges targeted alleged members of the Gülen movement. From September 2016, the Turkish judiciary started to submit HDP elected officials to anti-terrorism accusations. Several HDP parliamentarians have been imprisoned in November 2016[32][33] including the party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş, and Figen Yüksekdağ,[33] widely disturbing the HDP's ability to communicate and be active on the political scene. In December 2020 HDP co-deputy head for local governments, Salim Kaplan said that "since 2016, 20,000 of our members have been taken into custody and more than 10,000 of our members and executives have been sent to jail", and 48 municipalities have been seized by the government.[34] The ruling AKP accuses the HDP of having direct links with the PKK,[35] and the party had been defending itself against prohibition in March 2021, until the case was dropped.[36]

  1. ^ "Parti tüzüğü" (in Turkish). T.C. Yargıtay Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  2. ^ "HDP Merkez Yürütme Kurulu Olağanüstü Toplantısı Sonuçları" (in Turkish). HDP.org.tr. 24 February 2017. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Halkların Demokratik Partisi" (in Turkish). T.C. Yargıtay Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı. Archived from the original on 25 January 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  4. ^ "İletişim". HDP.org.tr. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Halkların Demokratik Partisi" (in Turkish). Court of Cassation. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Parti programı" (in Turkish). Halkların Demokratik Partisi. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Turkish court sentences pro-Kurdish MP to jail on terrorism charges". Reuters. 11 September 2020. A Turkish court sentenced a parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to 10 years in jail on Friday for membership of a terrorist organisation, court documents showed.
  8. ^ "Kobani and Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2022. Kobani crisis caused leaders of the PKK and Turkey's Kurdish nationalist party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), to call for nationwide demonstrations.
  9. ^ Yeğen, M. (2021). Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey, 1898–2018. In H. Bozarslan, C. Gunes, & V. Yadirgi (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Kurds (pp. 311-332). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108623711.013
  10. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Turkey". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  11. ^ a b Çiftçi 2019, p. 84.
  12. ^ Sebastian 2018, p. 45.
  13. ^ Tekdemir, Ömer (20 February 2015). "Is a socialist EU possible via left-wing populist parties such as Syriza, Podemos and the HDP?". openDemocracy.
  14. ^ a b "Court orders ban on HDP election brochures for promoting 'self-governance'". 19 October 2015. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  15. ^ a b "Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish MPs from only party with pro-LGBT policies". PinkNews. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  16. ^ a b "Meet The Pro-Gay, Pro-Women Party Shaking Up Turkish Politics". The Huffington Post. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  17. ^ [6][14][15][16]
  18. ^ [6][14][15][16]
  19. ^ Oxford Analytica (2019). Turkish leader will assess and address opposition wins.
  20. ^ Celep 2014, p. 166.
  21. ^ "PES congratulates associate parties HDP and CHP with historic election result". Party of European Socialists. 8 June 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  22. ^ "Parties & Organisations - Progressive Alliance". Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  23. ^ "Consultative parties". Socialist International. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  24. ^ "HDP Kurumsal Kimlik" (PDF). HDP.org.tr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  25. ^ "Biz'ler Meclise". hdp.org.tr.
  26. ^ "HDP'ê Beyannameya Xwe ya Hilbijartinê Aşkera Kir". trtnuce.com. 2015-04-21. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  27. ^ "Parties Map". PES. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  28. ^ "Members". Socialist International. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  29. ^ "Parties & Organisations". Progressive Alliance. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  30. ^ van Wilgenburg, Wladimir (23 February 2020). "Turkey's pro-Kurdish party elects co-chairs amid continued state crackdown". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  31. ^ "Men and Women to Run Together 58 HDP Municipalities". Bianet. 1 April 2019.
  32. ^ "HDP's Hakkari MP Akdoğan Arrested". Bianet. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  33. ^ a b "Tausende demonstrieren gegen Verhaftungswelle". Die Zeit. 6 November 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  34. ^ "20,000 HDP members taken into custody in 4 years, 10,000 jailed". 25 December 2020.
  35. ^ "Pro-Kurdish HDP equivalent to outlawed terrorist PKK, says Erdoğan". Ahval. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  36. ^ "HDP closure case | Prosecutor submits his opinion to Constitutional Court". Bianet. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.

Developed by StudentB