The Peace and Democracy Party (, , BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014.

Development

BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK). The BDP was co-chaired by Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak. One-third of its representatives were

Alevi Alevism (; ; ) is a syncretic heterodox Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Islamic teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, who taught the teachings of the Twelve Imams, whilst incorporating some traditions from shamanism. Differing ...

. The Deputy Chairs were Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken. In the elections the BDP supported the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc, which achieved the election of 35 Members of Parliament. After municipal elections on 30 March 2014, Berivan Elif Kilic became the co-mayor of Kocaköy, a farming town of 17,000 people in Turkey’s Kurdish region. Kilic shared the post of mayor with her male running mate, Affullah Kar, a former

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

. Under BDP party rules, all top positions are split between a man and a woman, in an effort to promote women’s participation in politics.

Ideology

The party chairman has called for the PKK to disarm. The BDP had

observer status Observer status is a privilege granted by some organizations to non-members to give them an ability to participate in the organization's activities. Observer status is often granted by intergovernmental organizations (IGO) to non-member parties and ...

in the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...

. BDP supported Turkey's membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, same-sex marriages in Turkey, an anti-discrimination law to protect LGBT people and also wants the Government of Turkey to recognize the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

Peoples' Democratic Party

Pro-

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements oft ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) acted as the fraternal party to BDP. At the 2014 municipal elections, HDP ran parallel to BDP, with the BDP running in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast while the HDP competed in the rest of the country except

Mersin Province Mersin Province (), formerly İçel Province (), is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast between Antalya Province, A ...

and

Konya Province Konya Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality in southwest Central Anatolia, Turkey. Its area is 40,838 km2, making it the largest province by area, and its population is 2,296,347 (2022). The provincial capital is the city ...

where BDP launched its own candidates. After the local elections, the two parties were re-organised in a joint structure. On 28 April 2014, the entire parliamentary caucus of BDP joined HDP, whereas BDP was assigned exclusively to representatives on the local administration level.

Legal prosecution

The BDP has reported that between April 2009 and October 2011 more than 7500 BDP members were detained and over 3000 were arrested.

Reorganisation

At the 3rd Congress of the party on 11 July 2014, the name was changed to the Democratic Regions Party and a new structure restricting activities on the local/regional government level was adopted.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peace And Democracy Party Kurdish nationalist political parties Political parties established in 2008 2008 establishments in Turkey Defunct Kurdish parties in Turkey 2014 disestablishments in Turkey Political parties disestablished in 2014 Defunct social democratic parties in Turkey Kurdish nationalism in Turkey HEP tradition