Democratic Society Movement (DTH) of Turkiye
rick murphy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Society_Party
Democratic Society Party (Turkish: Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP) was
a Kurdish political party in Turkey. The party considered itself
social democratic, and had observer status within the Socialist
International. It was considered to be the successor of the Democratic
People's Party (DEHAP). On December 11, 2009, the Constitutional Court
of Turkey banned the DTP, ruling that the party has become "focal
point of activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the
country and the nation". The ban has been widely criticized both by
groups within Turkey and by several international organizations.
Background
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
latest leader of the DTP was Ahmet Türk.[1] Ahmet Türk co-chaired the
party with Aysel Tuğluk until 9 November 2007 when they were replaced
by Nurettin Demirtaş and Emine Ayna.[2][3] However, Nurettin Demirtaş
was imprisoned the following month because of a fake health report
that enabled him to avoid military service.[4] In May 2008 Nurettin
Demirtaş was forced to resign after being released from prison and
conscripted into the Turkish Army.[5] Emine Ayna, MP for Mardin, was
elected leader of the DTP in his place.[2][6] Later in May, Ayna also
became Chair of the DTP Parliamentary Group, when Ahmet Türk resigned.
[2] However, in July 2008 Ahmet Türk became, once again, chairman of
the DTP.[7]
PKK Connections & Disbanding
Connection with the PKK
Since its inception, the party and its leaders have faced legal
problems with the Turkish government since critics[who?] suspect the
party of ties to the Kurdish separatist movements and the PKK, an
armed militant organization recognized as a terrorist organization by
Turkey, the EU and the USA.[8]
It was also criticized by observers for not distancing itself from
PKK's armed actions to confirm its refutations of its claimed links
with the PKK.[9] As of June 2007 report by the European Union
Institute for Security Studies stated that "It is an obvious secret
that DTP is connected to PKK in a way and PKK is a terrorist
group."[10]
Fatma Kurtulan, whose husband is an active PKK member, is one of the
MPs of the Democratic Society Party.[11][12]
In 27 April 2009 another MP Pervin Buldan stated "they designated the
boundaries of Kurdistan.[13]
In October 2007, in a meeting of the ambassadors of the EU countries
and the US to Turkey, it was reported that the diplomats pressured the
DTP to denounce PKK as terrorist,[14][15] following a DTP-sponsored
conference, whose final declaration called the jailed PKK leader,
Abdullah Öcalan, a "leader of the Kurdish people" and called for his
release.[16][17]
Leyla Zana, a leading figure in the party recently made the statement:
"in '99, our leader [Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK] was in
İmralı" which led the crowd to chant "Long live Apo" (Kurdish: Bijî
Serok Apo) the nickname of Öcalan.[18] A judicial investigation was
initiated over her remarks.[19]
Kurdish politician Abdülmelik Fırat claims that Democratic Society
Party (DTP) was founded by PKK, and that 80 percent of Kurds do not
vote for this party.[20]
However, senior DTP leaders claim that they support a unified Turkey
within a democratic framework. Tuğluk published an article in Radikal
in May 2007 to prove that claim.[21]
2007–2008 Attempt to ban
Supreme Court prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to ban the
Democratic Society Party. They allege that DTP is linked to the PKK.
Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said in an indictment "that
speeches and actions by party leaders have proved that the party has
become a focal point of activities against the sovereignty of the
state and indivisible unity of the country and the nation." He said
prosecutors hoped the legal case would shut down the party, which he
described as "based on blood and orders from the terrorist
organization of the PKK". Yalcinkaya said the party should be
prevented from participating in elections during the expected trial
period.[22]
The chief prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to ban 221 members
of the party, including eight lawmakers, from taking part in politics
for five years after the closure of the party.[22]
If the party is disbanded by the Constitutional Court, those eight
legislators will be banned from the Parliament despite a warning by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AKP) that excluding Kurdish
lawmakers could "push them toward illegal action" and bring them
closer to the rebel organization.[22]
The AKP itself barely escaped being dissolved in July 2008. Human
Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the Political Parties Act, which was
included in the closure case against the AKP and may be used against
the DTP.[23] According to HRW, the evidence in the indictment against
the DTP consists predominantly of nonviolent speeches and statements
by party officials and deputies.[23] Referencing the AKP case, the
Adiyaman deputy of the Republican People's Party requested that the
party not be closed, for consistency's sake.[24]
In his party's 54-page verbal defence, president Ahmet Türk reiterated
that the party was not affiliated with the PKK and suggested that the
national identity be redefined based on the concept of a shared
territory, rather than on ethnicity.[25] He noted that most of the
allegations against the party were human rights issues, the most
flagrant violation of which he considered to be impediments to using
the Kurdish language.
2009 Disbanding
On December 11, 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey voted to ban
the DTP, ruling that the party has become the "focal point of
activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the country and
the nation" as the party has an organic connection to the PKK.[26][27]
The Court declared that DTP violated Articles 68 and 69 of the
Constitution and the Political Parties Law.[28] "The party became a
focal point for terrorism against the indivisible integrity of the
state.", stated Haşim Kılıç, president of the Court.[28] Chairman
Ahmet Turk and legislator Aysel Tugluk were expelled from Parliament,
and they and 35 other party members were banned from joining any
political party for five years.[29]
These party members include: Abdulkadir Fırat, Abdullah İsnaç, Ahmet
Ay, Ahmet Ertak, Ahmet Türk, Ali Bozan, Ayhan Ayaz Aydın, Budak Ayhan
Karabulut, Aysel Tuğluk, Bedri Fırat, Cemal Kuhak, Deniz Yeşilyurt,
Ferhan Türk, Fettah Dadaş, Hacı Üzen Halit Kahraman, Hatice Adıbelli,
Hilmi Aydoğdu, Hüseyin Bektaşoğlu, Hüseyin Kalkan, İbrahim Sungur,
İzzet Belge, Kemal Aktaş, Leyla Zana, Mehmet Salih, Sağlam Mehmet,
Veysi Dilekçi, Metin Tekçe, Murat Avcı, Murat Taş, Musa Farisoğulları,
Mustafa Tuç, Nejdet Atalay, Nurettin Demirtaş, Orhan Miroğlu, Sedat
Yurttaş, Salim Sadak.
Later the same day, the Presidency of the European Union released a
statement, expressing concern over the Turkish court ruling, and
calling upon Turkey to reform its legislation on political parties.
[30]
The decision of the Constitutional Court sparked reaction among AK
Party parliamentarians. Mir Dengir Mehmet Fırat said: "Turkey has
become a graveyard for political parties that have been shut down.
Closing political parties does not bring any benefit to Turkey. The
Constitutional Court in its decision drew a parallel to the case of
Batasuna in Spain, but in my opinion, that example does not really
apply."[27]
Massoud Barzani, President of The Kurdistan Regional Government stated
"The president's office expresses its anger at the Turkish
constitutional court's outlawing of the Democratic Society Party
(DTP)," as hundreds of protesters gathered in Arbil, Iraq.
Most of the MPs who had been in the DTP decided to join the recently
formed Peace and Democracy Party.
Pre-legislative period
On 30 July 2007, the members of the DTP as a group declared in their
deputy information[clarification needed] that "Turkish is their second
language."[31] The parliament stopped the dissemination of information
regarding the deputies, until the situation 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." Some members of the public questioned
Leyla Zana on the grounds of which nation she had sworn to "hold
high". Chairwoman Aysel Tuğluk made a statement to the press on Sunday
in which she asserted, "We are here to serve our country."[32]
Legislative period
On November 5, 2007, inclusion of the demand for autonomy in the six
Kurdish provinces in the party program. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan is accused of heading down a dead-end street by attempting to
show Kurdish people as a minority group [autonomy of Kurdish
provinces] in Turkey which DTP claimed located in that region.[33]
On November 11, 2007, leader Nurettin Demirtaş called on political
party leaders to convene a "democracy summit". Demirtaş noted his
party has the will and initiative to stop bloodshed in the country.
They acted as an intermediary in the release of the eight abducted
soldiers.[34] DTP members have come under intense criticism after some
party members shook hands [sign of solidarity] with PKK leaders when
they went to northern Iraq to mediate for the release of abducted
Turkish soldiers. The DTP members did not sing Turkey's national
anthem during the opening of a party conference.[33]
Elections
2007 General election
See also: Turkish general election, 2007
The Democratic Society Party claimed that the 10% threshold of the
national vote required in order to be represented in the Grand
Assembly was aimed at disqualifying it from the parliament. However,
many other parties 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.[35] The next day in a statement, the High
Election Committee (Turkish: Yüksek Seçim Kurulu (YSK)) responded to
DTP's threat by stating that there was no issue and that they would
simply use "larger envelopes".[36]
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.[37]
Hamit Geylani could not join the DTP parliamentarian group due to a
former verdict of the Constitutional Court.[38] Akın Birdal joined DTP
to enable the party reach the 20 deputy threshold to form a group.[39]
Eight of the newly elected deputies from the party are women. The
female deputies (including İstanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel) are:
Name Province
Aysel Tuğluk Diyarbakır
Gültan Kışanak Diyarbakır
Emine Ayna Mardin
Sevahir Bayındır Şırnak
Fatma Kurtulan Van
Pervin Buldan Iğdır
Ayla Akat Ata Batman
Sebahat Tuncel İstanbul
2009 local elections
DTP currently has mayors in nine provincial capitals:
Diyarbakır (metropolitan municipality) 65.58%
Batman 65.43%
Hakkari 78.97%
Iğdır 39.62%
Siirt 49.43%
Şırnak 53.75%
Tunceli 30.00%
Bingol 34.28%
Van 53.54%
At the time of 2009 local elections, DTP had mayors in 54
municipalities:[40]
Province # With Mayors
Diyarbakır Province 12 of 32 including Diyarbakır Metropolitan
Municipality, the districts of Bismil,
Dicle, Ergani, Kocaköy, Lice, Silvan (six districts out of
thirteen) and other
minor municipalities.
Mardin Province 8 of 32 including Dargeçit, Derik, Kızıltepe,
Mazıdağı, Nusaybin among the
nine districts of the province
Batman Province 5 of 12 including Batman city, the districts of
Beşiri and Gercüş (two districts
out of five) and two minor municipalities.
Şırnak Province 5 of 20 including Şırnak city and the districts of
Beytüşşebap, Cizre, İdil,
Silopi, among the seven of the province.
Muş Province 4 of 28 including Bulanık, Malazgirt and Varto among
the nine districts of
the province.
Hakkari Province 4 of 8 including Hakkari city, two districts out of
three (Yüksekova and
Şemdinli), and one minor municipality.
Şanlıurfa Province 4 of 26 including Ceylanpınar, Suruç, Viranşehir
districts.
Siirt Province 2 of 13 including Kurtalan district.
Adana Province 2 of 53 two minor municipalities in Seyhan and
Yüreğir districts.
Tunceli Province 1 of 10 (Tunceli city).
Ağrı Province 1 of 12 notable district of Doğubeyazıt.
One minor municipality in each of the provinces of Adıyaman, Aydın,
Iğdır, Kars, Konya and Van.[citation needed] 43 of them in seven
provinces in Southeastern Turkey densely inhabited by Kurds, including
the mainly Kurdish inhabited city of Diyarbakır, where the DTP mayor
is Osman Baydemir. The party originally had five municipalities in
Muş. Orhan Özer, the mayor of the minor municipality Rüstemgedik was
expelled in May 2007 for practicing polygamy.[41]
References
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2009-01-03.
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11.^ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/7631329.asp
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17.^ "DTP's conditions worse than lack of action". Today's Zaman.
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Narrowly Escapes Court Ban, Human Rights Watch, 31 July 2008
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26.^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8408903.stm
28.^ a b Turkey's Constitutional Court closes DTP
29.^ Hacaoglu, Selcan (2009-12-11). "Turkey bans pro-Kurdish party
over ties to rebels". http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9VhSca_oZldvbO-XktR7l7Sa_PgD9CH89VG0.
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2007-05-16.
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37.^ Karabat, Ayse (2007-07-25). "They made it to Parliament but tough
job awaits DTP's women". Today's Zaman.
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38.^ Bağımsız 20 vekil DTP'ye geçti (Turkish)[unreliable source?]
39.^ "Meclis'te 4. Grup DTP oldu" (in Turkish). Gundem Online.
2007-07-31. http://www.gundemonline.org/haber.asp?haberid=40320.
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40.^ http://www.yerelnet.org.tr[not specific enough to verify]
41.^ "Belediye Başkanı, Eşinin Üzerine Kuma Getirmekten Partisinden
İhraç Edildi haberi" (in Turkish). Cihan News Agency (Haberler.com).
2007-05-06. http://www.haberler.com/belediye-baskani-esinin-uzerine-kuma-getirmekten-haberi.
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