Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi

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Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi
Logo of the BDP
Party leader Selahattin Demirtaş and Validan Kışanak (2011-14)
founding 2008
(actual predecessor: Democracy Toplum Partisi / DTP)
renaming July 2014
(renamed to: Demokratie Bölgeler Partisi / DBP)
Headquarters Ankara / Turkey
Alignment Democratic autonomy (according to party program)
Social democratic
Colours) yellow, green, red
International connections Socialist International (advisory)
European party Party of European Socialists (associated)

The Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi (short name: BDP ; kurmandschi Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, Turkish and kurmanji for "Party of Peace and Democracy") was a political party in Turkey . Their declared aim was to represent the interests of the Kurdish minority . It was the successor party to the pro-Kurdish DTP . The party logo shows an oak tree on a yellow background. The party was an advisory member of the Socialist International and an associate member of the Social Democratic Party of Europe . At its third party congress in July 2014, it changed its name to Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi (DBP, in German about Democratic Regions Party).

history

founding

Members of the Democracy Toplum Partisi ( DTP ) founded the Party of Peace and Democracy on May 2, 2008 as a substitute party, as a party ban proceedings were initiated against the DTP. On December 11, 2009, the DTP was banned by the Constitutional Court and 19 of its members joined the BDP, which means that the BDP is represented in parliament . The BDP currently has 36 members in parliament, some members of which have been imprisoned and their mandate has been withdrawn. The party has parliamentary strength .

At the end of December 2009, 91 mayors joined the banned DTP of the BDP, including the Lord Mayor of Diyarbakır , Osman Baydemir .

Parliamentary elections 2011

For the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011 , the BDP did not run as a party, but supported independent candidates of the bloc for work, democracy and freedom (tr: Emek, Demokrasi ve Özgürlük Bloku). In 2007 it was possible to bring 21 candidates into parliament in this way and to form a parliamentary group. In this way the 10% threshold was circumvented. Among the 61 candidates for 39 provinces were prominent Kurdish personalities such as Leyla Zana , Hatip Dicle , Ferhat Tunç , Şerafettin Elçi , Altan Tan and Yüksel Avşar (cousin of Hülya Avşar ). Socialist candidates such as Ertuğrul Kürkçü (co-founder of the THKP-C ) and Abdullah Levent Tüzel (chairman of the Emek Partisi ) were among them. The candidates also included Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk , who were removed from office after the DTP was closed. Some of the current MPs have not been nominated again. Candidates like Selahattin Demirtaş left the party in April 2011 to run as independents. With Erol Dora was in 2011 after decades of first deputy Christian faith elected to Parliament.

36 of the 65 candidates won a mandate. After the election, the BDP decided to boycott the constituent parliamentary session because the high electoral committee refused to give Hatip Dicle his mandate because of a conviction in an earlier trial. In addition, five of the elected candidates held in connection with the Koma Civakên Kurdistan have not been released from prison. 29 MPs joined the BDP and thus formed a parliamentary group. The BDP later gave up its boycott and attended the first session of parliament after the summer recess on October 1, 2011.

With a share of women of 31% of the MPs in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the BDP had the highest share of women of all parties represented in parliament, the AKP and the CHP each have 14% and the MHP 6%. The only Christian MP Erol Dora in the Turkish parliament is a member of the BDP.

Party internal

On February 1, 2010, an extraordinary party conference was held in Ankara. During the party congress, a new party leadership was elected and the statutes and the program changed. The amendment to the statutes established a dual leadership. The presidents were the MPs Selahattin Demirtaş from Diyarbakır and Validan Kışanak , who is also a MP from Diyarbakır. However, since the Turkish party law does not allow dual leadership, Kışanak is considered a deputy.

At the April 2011 congress, Selahattin Demirtaş and Validan Kışanak were replaced by Hamit Geylani and Filiz Koçali . At the party congress in Ankara in early September 2011, Selahattin Demirtaş was again elected party chairman.

HDP and DBP

At the end of April 2014, 27 BDP members joined the Grand National Assembly of the Halkların Demokratik Partisi (HDP). This took place as part of a merger process between BDP and HDP. The HDP was founded in 2012 to bring together various factions of left and socialist groups in the west of the country. These groups include representatives of the LGBT movement, the Gezi Park movement , public figures and various ethnic groups and religious beliefs. The BDP and HDP had already cooperated in the local elections in March 2014 : The BDP competed in its strongholds in eastern Turkey, while the HDP in the west of the country.

The founding members included Ertuğrul Kürkçü , Sebahat Tuncel and Sırrı Süreyya Önder , who were elected to parliament in 2011 with the support of the BDP. With the entry of other previously independent MPs such as Levent Tüzel and Gürsel Yıldırım, İbrahim Ayhan, Selma Irmak and Faysal Sarıyıldız , all four of whom were released from custody in February 2014 as part of the KCK trials , the HDP faction in parliament grew. With 29 MPs, the HDP had parliamentary strength.

At the third party congress, Emine Ayna and Kamuran Yüksek were elected as a new dual leadership. After the BDP MPs moved over to the HDP in the Grand National Assembly, the BDP reoriented itself: It now wants to focus on engagement at the local level and no longer take part in national parliamentary elections. Instead, the HDP should take over, which acts as a kind of "sister party". Accordingly, the name of the BDP was changed to Democracy Bölgeler Partisi .

Legal situation and processes of BDP politicians

Party members have been arrested since 2010

In Gaziantep , Adıyaman , Mersin and Hatay Province , 22 people were interrogated and arrested without charge on suspicion of membership in the Koma Civakên Kurdistan . Those arrested include eight mayors, including mayors of Batman , Cizre , Kızıltepe , Kayapınar , Sur and Viranşehir cities .

A few weeks later, the BDP put up posters in protest against the wave of arrests, demonstrating the arrest of their party members. The headline under the illustration of the poster was: Dün Halepce, bugün Kelepce (German: Yesterday Halabdscha , today handcuffs ). The poster portrayed the wave of arrests as an attempt at political annihilation and compared it to the poison gas attack on Halabja in the course of the Anfal operation .

A few months later, an indictment was published, which has a total of 7583 pages and consists primarily of intercepted dialogues of the defendants.

On October 18, 2010, the trial of 151 defendants began before the 6th Great Criminal Chamber ( Ağır Ceza Mahkemeleri ) in Diyarbakır, among other things for membership in an armed organization . In the 7,500-page indictment, the prosecution requested sentences of 5 to 15 years, 36.5 years and life imprisonment.

Assault on BDP politicians

Attack on BDP politicians

One day before the planned vote on the constitutional referendum in 2010 , Akın Birdal , MP of the BDP, was assaulted on the platform during a party meeting in Bursa : While Birdal was delivering his speech, an attacker who had posed as a plainclothes policeman attacked Birdal with him Fists, whereupon he fell to the ground and participants in the rally tried to lynch the attacker . He was hospitalized with moderate injuries.

The BDP condemned this attack as a "dirty and planned provocation ". Investigations revealed that the attacker, a student at Marmara University , organized and led Turkish nationalist demonstrations in Azerbaijan . Shortly before his attack, he took part in a BDP rally in the city of Batman. He announced his attack on a " traitor to the fatherland " months earlier on community platforms such as Facebook .

Actions by the BDP

Like its predecessor parties, the BDP is trying to use parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means to draw attention to the problems of the Kurdish ethnic minority in Turkey. Some activities are presented in the following subsections.

Boycott the 2010 constitutional amendment

The BDP was the only party in the country to boycott the constitutional amendment, which contains democratic changes but still does not admit any cultural , religious or political rights to the country's minorities . The party justified the boycott by demanding a completely new civil constitution.

As part of its boycott campaign , the BDP had posters posted in predominantly Kurdish areas, which are bilingual (Turkish and Kurdish). These were banned by the Turkish authorities and removed shortly afterwards. This was justified by the fact that oral propaganda in Kurdish is permitted, but written propaganda is prohibited by law.

Call to protest

On March 24, 2011, the dual leadership of the BDP called for nationwide civil disobedience . Tents were pitched in many cities in the country and so-called peace vigils were held. The tents were called "Tents of the Democratic Solution". With the action, the party wanted to draw attention to the still unsolved problem of dealing with the Kurdish minority and made four demands of the government and the Turkish public:

  • The right to education in the mother tongue
  • The repeal or reduction of the ten percent threshold clause in elections to the Turkish parliament, which is above average compared to regulations in EU countries
  • The termination of political and military actions against Kurdish organizations
  • The release of political prisoners.

While the BDP sees its demands as long overdue steps, its critics described the action as election propaganda for the Turkish parliamentary elections that took place on June 12, 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. Democratic solution to the Kurdish question ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . BDP party website. Retrieved August 15, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / international.bdp.org.tr
  2. 91 belediye BDP'ye geçti , article from Milliyet , accessed on December 24, 2009
  3. Complete list of candidates (Turkish) ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdp.org.tr
  4. "Women deputies constitute 14.3 pct of the Turkish parliament" World Bulletin. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  5. HDP Genel Başkanlığı'na Sebahat Tuncel seçildi , article in Radikal of October 27, 2013
  6. ^ A b Yaşar Aydın: Democratic Party of the Peoples / Party for Peace and Democracy (BDP / HDP). In: Dossier Turkey. Federal Agency for Civic Education, October 10, 2014.
  7. ^ Four released deputies transferred to HDP In: Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved March 14, 2014
  8. BDP 'nin ismi' Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi 'oldu
  9. KCK operasyonlarının arkası , article from Radikal, accessed April 21, 2010
  10. NTVmsnbc.com: Kelepçeli BDP'liler Diyarbakır'a afiş oldu , accessed on September 9, 2010
  11. KCK iddianamesi mahkemede , article from www.haberturk.com accessed on September 9, 2010
  12. KCK / TM ana davası başladı , Milliyet article of October 18, 2010
  13. Akın Birdal'a kürsüde vurdular , article from Haberturk.com, accessed on September 12, 2010.
  14. BDP neden boycot dedi? , Article from Haberturk.com, accessed September 12, 2010
  15. AKP'ye serbest BDP'ye yasak , article from Yuksekovahaber.com, accessed September 12, 2010
  16. BDP sivil itaatsizlik eylemlerini başlatıyor , article from Radikal.com.tr, accessed on March 28, 2011