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The People's Labour Party (Turkish: Halkın Emek Partisi, HEP), sometimes translated as the People's Work Party, was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey.
People's Labour Party Halkın Emek Partisi | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | HEP |
| Leader | Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar |
| Founded | 7 June 1990 |
| Banned | 14 July 1993 |
| Split from | Social Democratic Populist Party |
| Succeeded by | |
| Ideology | |
It was founded on 7 June 1990 by seven members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly expelled from the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP).[1] They were expelled from the SHP for having attended a Kurdish congress organized by the Kurdish Institute in Paris.[2] HEP was led by Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar.[1] It first viewed itself as a party for the whole of Turkey. But that a party represented in the Turkish Parliament openly demanded more rights for the Kurds was new to Turkish politics.[3] Its politicians held speeches in front of audiences of up to 10,000 people in Southeast Turkey, which was deemed a danger to public security by the Turkish authorities.[4] In view of the "Kurdish question", the HEP vigorously campaigned for the right to self-determination of the people by means of a federation, referendum or a similar kind of solution found by the people.[4] Following the Newroz celebrations, president Işıklar declared during the first party congress in June 1991 that several circles tried to brand the party as a Kurdish party. As the party is a party of the suppressed, within this framework they are proud of being called a Kurdish party. Some days later, he reiterated that they were not uncomfortable with being called a 'Kurdish Party' since it was the Kurds whose rights were most infringed. After this declaration, several of the Turkish founding members resigned.[5]
1991 elections
For the 1991 Turkish general election, it formed an electoral alliance with the SHP of Erdal Inönü,[4][6] and 22 politicians from the HEP entered the parliament with this alliance.[7] The HEP was involved in peace negotiations with the PKK. On 16 April 1993 chairman Ahmet Türk and five other MPs traveled to the Bar Elias in Lebanon, demanding a prolongation of the cease fire declared by the PKK before.[8] The cease-fire was prolonged at a press conference given the same day.[9]
Ban
Due to the overt promotion of Kurdish cultural and political rights, the party was banned by the Constitutional Court in July 1993.[10] The party was succeeded by the Democracy Party (DEP) established in May 1993.[1] In 2002 the European Court of Human Rights held that, since its methods and aims were peaceful and democratic, its dissolution was not justified as "necessary in a democratic society" as required by Article 11 and granted Feridun Yazar, Ahmet Karataş and Ibrahim Aksoy each €10,000 and another €10,000 combined due to the banning of their party.[11]
Vedat Aydın, the Diyarbakır branch chairman of HEP, was found dead on a road near Malatya on 7 July 1991, two days after armed men had taken him from his home in Diyarbakır. His wife, Şükran Aydın, states that her husband's murder was a turning point and that there was a sudden increase in the number of unsolved murders in Turkey's southeastern region following his death. She says that JİTEM, a clandestine unit within the Turkish Gendarmerie, was responsible for his murder.[12]
- Leyla Zana
- Ahmet Türk
- Mahmut Kılınç
- Adnan Ekmen
- Nizamettin Toĝuç
- Abdulkerim Zilan
- Hatip Dicle
- Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar
- Salih Sümer
- Mahmut Uyanık
- Mehmet Ali Eren
- Mehmet Sincar
- Sedat Yurtdaş
- Ali Yiĝit
- Muzzafer Demir
- Sırrı Sakık
- Emin Ever
- Zübeyir Aydar
- Naif Güneş
- Mahmut Alınak
- Orhan Doğan
- Selim Sadak
- Remzi Kartal
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