( - DTP) is a pro-
Kurdish Left Wing Political Party in Turkey, considered as the successor to the
Democratic People's Party (DEHAP).
DTP is the first Turkish party to have collective leadership, it is co-presided by Ms. Aysel Tuğluk and Mr. Ahmet Türk.
The party was founded in 2005, as the merger of the DEHAP and the ''Democratic Society Movement (DTH)''. DTH was set up by the veteran Kurdish politicians, former deputies
Leyla Zana , Orhan Doğan, Hatip Dicle and Selim Sadak upon their release from prison in 2004.
The party considers itself as
Social-democratic , and has observer status within the
Socialist International .
DTP has mayors in 54 municipalities,
These are;
In , where the DTP mayor is Osman Baydemir . The party originally had 5 municipalities in Muş. Orhan Özer, the mayor of the minor municipality Rüstemgedik was expelled in May 2007 for practicing polygamy.[http://www.haberler.com/belediye-baskani-esinin-uzerine-kuma-getirmekten-haberi
See Also: Turkish general election, 2007
During the election a death threat was mailed by PKK to
CHP ,
MHP ,
DYP and
AKP to withdraw their
Van and
Hakkari candidates allowing the party (Democratic Society Party - DTP) to have complete dominance in the
2007 Turkish General Election .
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Democratic Society Party claimed that the 10% of national vote to be represented in the
Grand Assembly is aimed at prevent them represented in the parliament. Many parties that failed to cross this
Threshold in the
Last Election . The Democratic Society Party decided to have its candidates run as Independents. On
13 May DTP announced that if they wanted to, they could lock up the elections by putting in five to ten thousand independent candidates. The next day in a statement, the High Election Committee () responded to DTP's threat by stating that there is no issue and that they would simply use "larger envelopes".
by constituency. Most, though not all, of the successful independent candidates were DTP members.]]
20 DTP affiliates running as independents were elected to the
Grand National Assembly Of Turkey :
- Batman: Ayla Akat Ata, Bengi Yıldız
- Bitlis: Mehmet Nezir Karabaş
- Diyarbakır: Aysel Tuğluk, Selahattin Demirtaş, Gültan Kışanak
- Hakkari: Hamit Geylani
- Iğdır: Pervin Buldan
- İstanbul: Sebahat Tuncel
- Mardin: Ahmet Türk, Emine Ayna
- Muş: Sırrı Sakık, Nuri Yaman
- Siirt: Osman Özçelik
- Şanlıurfa: İbrahim Binici
- Şırnak: Sevahir Bayındır, Hasip Kaplan
- Tunceli: Şerafettin Halis
- Van: Fatma Kurtulan, Özdal Uçer
İstanbul deputy, Sebahat Tuncel, was under arrest when elected and being tried on charges of being a member of
PKK .
Two independent candidates backed by DTP were also elected:
Hamit Geylani could not join the DTP parliamentarian group due to a former verdict of the
Constitutional Court .
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Akın Birdal joined DTP to enable the party reach the 20 deputy threshold to form a group.
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The seven of the newly elected deputies from "the region" are women. "The region" is connected to honour killings, female suicides and feudal pressureshttp://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=117588. The Turkish women’s movement and the deputies themselves admit they have a tough job ahead, but they remain hopeful. Women representation (with İstanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel) is ;
Europe parliament called on DTP direct quote: "distance itself from terrorism" or "remain distant from terrorism"http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=117904. EU claimed that operating under the assumption that Kurdish deputies in Parliament is an opportunity for further democratization.
On 30 7 2007, the members of the DTP as a group (group registration) declared in their deputy information that "Turkish is their second language"http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/secim/6987505.asp?gid=180. The parliament stopped the dissemination of information regarding the deputies, until the situation is cleared up. The Ankara politics tried to find out the answers regarding these new members ability to follow the legislation sessions, such that 16 years ago same issue was happened with
Leyla Zana who claimed that Turkish was her second language and used the Kurdish for the parliamentary oath. In 1991, the script of the parliamentary oath included words such that "I would hold my nation high." Public questioned Leyla Zana on the grounds of which nation she had "hold high". Chairwoman Aysel Tuğluk made a statement to the press on Sunday in which she asserted, “We are here to serve our country.http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=117937&bolum=103”
Since its inception, the party and its leaders have faced legal problems with the
Turkish Government since critics suspect the party of ties to the Kurdish separatist movements and the
PKK , an armed militant organization recognized as terrorist by Turkey, the EU and the USA.
, leader of the
PKK ] was in
İmralı " which lead the crowd to chant "Long live Chairman Apo" () the nickname of Öcalan. An investigation has been initialized over the remarks of Zana.
Senior DTP leaders maintain that they support a unified Turkey within a democratic framework. This stance was manifested clearly in an article of Tuğluk published in ''
Radikal '' in
May 2007 .
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Official website
