Halkın Demokrasi Partisi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People's Democracy Party

Halkın Demokrasi Partisi
founding May 11, 1994 by Murat Bozlak
resolution March 13, 2003

The Halkın Demokrasi Partisi (HADEP, "Party of People's Democracy", Kurdish : Partiya Demokrasiya Gel ) was a left-wing political party in Turkey with a program aimed at the Kurdish minority. It was founded on May 11, 1994, one month after the Constitutional Court on April 16, 1994 banned the like “ Demokrasi Parti ” (DEP, “Party of Democracy”). According to an estimate published in 1995, the Kurdish target group of HADEP comprised 12.6 percent of the total population. With the nationwide electoral threshold of 10 percent, a failure of this party without electoral alliances was programmed.

program

HADEP took no position on important social issues of the 1990s such as the customs union or the privatization of state-owned companies. The HADEP program was “vague” on the core issue of the Kurdish problem. As with the previous party, DEP, there was no clear demarcation from the PKK . There was also no explicit commitment to Turkey's territorial integrity. The fraternal coexistence of Turks and Kurds, as the party propagated, left room for interpretation.

Election results

In the parliamentary elections of 1995 , HADEP achieved 4.2 percent of the valid votes. Only in the provinces of Diyarbakır (46.31%) and Hakkâri (54.21%) did it succeed in winning over the majority of Kurdish voters. In Şırnak (25.9%), Siirt (26.6%), Iğdır (21.7%), Tunceli (16.9%), Muş (16.7%), Bitlis (10.0%), Van (27.99%), Şanlıurfa (13.72%), Batman and Ağrı (17.91%), the party jumped the 10 percent hurdle. If the electoral hurdles had been removed, HADEP could have sent 24 members to parliament . In the 1999 parliamentary elections , HADEP received 4.8% of the vote nationwide. Without the 10% threshold , this would have meant 34 out of 550 seats in parliament. In the 1999 local elections , the mayor was elected in 37 locations (including one major city and six provincial capitals).

Prohibition

On March 13, 2003, the Constitutional Court unanimously banned HADEP. The court cited separatist efforts to justify this. It imposed a five-year ban on political activity against a total of 46 senior officials. Chairman Murat Bozlak was also affected by this. The party's assets were confiscated. On September 1, 2003, a complaint was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On December 14, 2010, the court ruled that the ban on HADEP violated the freedom of organization granted in Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights .

Persecution situation

HADEP politicians were among the civilian victims of the particularly extreme violence of the 1990s, which was often related to the Turkish-Kurdish conflict . On June 2, 1994, Muhsin Melik, one of the founders of the party and a member of the party parliament, was killed with his driver Mehmet Ayyıldız in Urfa . Party offices in western Turkey were also repeatedly attacked and bombed. Here, too, people were killed and injured. Trials were opened against many members and functionaries of HADEP in which they were accused of being members or supporters of the PKK. This was the case, for example, after the 2nd Ordinary Congress of HADEP, which was held on June 23, 1996 in Ankara. Someone had removed a Turkish flag from the hall during the congress. As a result, 49 participants in the congress were arrested while leaving the hall. 24 of them were detained.

The Ankara State Security Court (SSG) brought a case against 41 people, of whom 23 officials were charged as leading members of an illegal organization (including the chairman Murat Bozlak), 17 were accused of being ordinary members and one person was charged with disseminating separatist propaganda has been. Separate proceedings were opened against two people who were supposed to have removed the flag. These proceedings were later merged. On June 4, 1997, the person who removed the flag (not a member of HADEP) was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. Murat Bozlak and the meeting leader Hikmet Fidan were sentenced to 6 years in prison for supporting an illegal organization. 28 defendants were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and 14 defendants were acquitted. The incident itself was a key point in the prohibition proceedings against HADEP. According to the TIHV, more than 100 functionaries and 300 members of HADEP were arrested in 1997. Not all of them were charged, but some were tortured.

After Abdullah Öcalan's arrest in Kenya and his imprisonment in Turkey in February 1999, protests broke out in many parts of Turkey, some of which resulted in clashes between police and demonstrators. HADEP was seen as the organizer behind the actions. The police searched many offices of the party and arrested more than 3,000 people, according to the IHD. In February 2000, HADEP chairman Ahmet Turan Demir, former chairman Murat Bozlak and 16 officials were sentenced to 45 months in prison under Article 169 of the Criminal Code for supporting an illegal organization and were sent to Diyarbakır prison.

Also in February 2000, 47 HADEP members, including the mayors of Diyarbakır , Siirt and Bingöl , were arrested on charges of providing financial support to the PKK . The Minister of the Interior dismissed her and the Mayor of Ağrı , Hüseyin Yılmaz, who was sentenced to 45 months in prison. The mayors were sacked at the end of February but were banned from traveling. You were charged in March with supporting the PKK. In the course of the process, the travel bans were lifted again. The proceedings did not end until 2006. The 5th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Diyarbakır acquitted the former mayors of Batman , Siirt and Bingöl from among the 24 accused . In the case of the mayor of Diyarbakır, as well as 17 other defendants, the court ruled on the statute of limitations. Only the former Deputy Mayor of Diyarbakır, Ramazan Tekin, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for membership of the PKK.

Leadership members

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Servet Mutlu: Population of Turkey by Groups and Provinces, in: New Perspectives on Turkey, 12 (Spring 1995), pp. 44 and 51
  2. ↑ Harald Schüler: The Turkish parties and their members. German Orient-Institut, Hamburg 1998, p. 106
  3. ↑ Erol Tuncer: 24 Aralık Seçimlerein İlişkin Sayısal ve Genel Bir Değerlendirme. Sosyal Democrat Değişim. Siyasi ve Kültürel Dergi, 1 (1996), p. 35
  4. ↑ See an undated article at yuksekovahaber.com Kürtlerin ittifak arayışı ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2015 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. ; Accessed July 10, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.yuksekovahaber.com
  5. ↑ Daily newspaper Radikal of March 14, 2003 ( Memento of the original of April 17, 2015 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.radikal.com.tr
  6. ↑ See the press release in English ; Accessed July 10, 2015
  7. ↑ a b Compare the article 1990'dan Bugüne, HEP'ten DTP'ye Kürtlerin Zorlu Siyaset Mücadelesi at Bianet from December 12, 2009; Accessed July 10, 2015
  8. ↑ See the Turkish annual report of the Foundation for Human Rights in Turkey (TIHV) for 1997, Ankara 1999, p. 410
  9. ↑ See the annual report of the Foundation for Human Rights in Turkey (Turkish) for 1997, Ankara 1999, p. 411
  10. ↑ See the 1999 annual report of the TIHV Report for 1999 , page 29; Accessed July 10, 2015
  11. ↑ See an urgent action by Amnesty International due to the threat of torture UA-045/2000 ( memento of the original from July 12, 2015 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. Index: EUR 44/008/2000 as of February 22, 2000; Accessed July 10, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.amnesty.de
  12. ↑ See the 1999 annual report of the TIHV Report for 2000 , pages 277–278; Accessed July 10, 2015
  13. ↑ See a message in gazetevatan dated February 1, 2006 entitled Belediye başkanlarının 'PKK'ya yardım' davası, 6 yıl sonra bitti ; Accessed July 10, 2015

literature

  • Harald Schüler: The Turkish parties and their members. German Orient Institute, Hamburg 1998