Democratic Society Party Totally Explained

Everything about Democratic Society Party totally explained

Democratic Society Party (- DTP) is a pro-Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey, considered as the successor to the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP). It is considered by many as the political wing of the PKK, an armed ethnic separatist group recognised as terrorist by the US, EU, many international organizations and especially Turkish Government. It is also criticized for not distancing itself from PKK's armed actions to confirm its refutations of its claimed links with the PKK. 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, following a DTP-sponsored conference whose final declaration called the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, as a "leader of the Kurdish people" and called for his release.
The party considers itself as social-democratic, and has observer status within the Socialist International. However, a 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."
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. Before 2007, DTP's president was Ahmet Türk, even though it claimed to have two co-presidents (the other "co-president" being Aysel Tugluk). DTP's president is Nurettin Demirtaş but he's at prison, so DTP is currently lead by Vice President Emine Ayna, though DTP claims to have two co-presidents.

DTP mayors

DTP has mayors in 54 municipalities, These are;
In Diyarbakır Province: 12 municipalities out of 32, including Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, the districts of Bismil, Dicle, Ergani, Kocaköy, Lice, Silvan (6 districts out of 13) and other minor municipalities.
In Mardin Province: 8 municipalities out of 32 (including Dargeçit, Derik, Kızıltepe, Mazıdağı, Nusaybin among the 9 districts of the province)
In Batman Province: 5 municipalities out of 12, including Batman city, the districts of Beşiri and Gercüş (2 districts out of 5) and 2 minor municipalities.
In Şırnak Province: 5 municipalities out of 20, including Şırnak city and the districts of Beytüşşebap, Cizre, İdil, Silopi, among the seven of the province.
In Muş Province: 4 municipalities out of 28 (including Bulanık, Malazgirt and Varto among the nine districts of the province).
In Hakkari Province: 4 municipalities out of 8, including Hakkari city,2 districts out of 3 (Yüksekova and Şemdinli), and 1 minor municipality.
In Şanlıurfa Province: 4 municipalities out of 26 including Ceylanpınar, Suruç, Viranşehir districts.
In Siirt Province: 2 municipalities out of 13 including Kurtalan district.
In Adana Province: 2 municipalities out of 53, two minor municipalities in Seyhan and Yüreğir districts.
In Tunceli Province: 1 municipality out of 10 (Tunceli city).
In Ağrı Province: 1 municipality out of 12 (notable district of Doğubeyazıt).
One minor municipality in each of the provinces of Adıyaman, Aydın, Iğdır, Kars, Konya and Van. 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 5 municipalities in Muş. Orhan Özer, the mayor of the minor municipality Rüstemgedik was expelled in May 2007 for practicing polygamy.

2007 General Election

Controversy

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 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's no issue and that they'd simply use "larger envelopes".

Result

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 Akın Birdal joined DTP to enable the party reach the 20 deputy threshold to form a group.
The seven of the newly elected deputies from "the region" are women. "The region" is connected to honour killings, female suicides and feudal pressures. The Turkish women’s movement and the deputies themselves admit they've a tough job ahead, but they remain hopeful. EU claimed that operating under the assumption that Kurdish deputies in Parliament is an opportunity for further democratization, even though it has been stated that "It is an obvious secret that DTP is connected to PKK in a way and PKK is a terrorist group." PKK is recognized as a terrorist group by the EU.

Pre-legislative

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". 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." Public questioned Leyla Zana on the grounds of which nation she'd "hold high". Chairwoman Aysel Tuğluk made a statement to the press on Sunday in which she asserted, “We are here to serve our country.”

Legislative

On November 5, 2007 inclusion of the demand for autonomy in the six Kurdish provinces in the party program. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused of heading down a dead-end street by attempting to show Kurdish people as a minority group [autonomyof Kurdish provinces] in Turkey which DTP claimed located in that region.
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 . DTP members have come under intense criticism after some party members shook hands [signof solidarity] with PKK leaders when they went to northern Iraq to mediate for the release of abducted Turkish soldiers. The DTP members didn't sing Turkey’s national anthem during the opening of a party conference.

Attempt to disband November 2007

Supreme Court prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to ban the Democratic Society Party. They allege that DTP is linked to the terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (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. Local elections are scheduled for March 2008.
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.
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 on Thursday that excluding Kurdish lawmakers could "push them toward illegal action" and bring them closer to the rebel organization, the daily Sabah reported Friday.

Accusations of connection with the PKK

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. 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 lead the crowd to chant "Long live Chairman Apo" the nickname of Öcalan. A judicial investigation was initiated over her remarks.
Senior DTP leaders maintain that they support a unified Turkey within a democratic framework. Tuğluk published an article in Radikal in May 2007 to prove that claim.

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