The Peace and Democracy Party ( tr, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, ku, Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014.

Development

BDP succeeded the

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party ( tr, Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP, Kurdish: ''Partiya Civaka Demokratîk'', PCD) was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social-democratic and had observer status in the Soci ...

(DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK). The BDP was co-chaired by

Selahattin Demirtaş Selahattin Demirtaş (born 10 April 1973) is a politician, author, and former member of the parliament of Turkey. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to ...

and

Gültan Kışanak Gültan Kışanak (born 15 June 1961) is a Kurdish journalist, author and politician from Turkey. Kışanak was born in Elazığ in 1961. Her family is originally from Dersim Tunceli ( ku, Dêrsim) is a city and municipality in eastern Turkey. ...

. One-third of its representatives were

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...

. The Deputy Chairs were

Pervin Buldan Pervin Buldan (born 6 November 1967) is a Turkish politician. She was a member of the Democratic Society Party (DTP). She is President of Yakay-Der and one of the deputy speakers in the 26th Parliament of Turkey. On 11 February 2018, she was e ...

and İdris Baluken. In the elections the BDP supported the

Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc The Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Emek, Demokrasi ve Özgürlük Bloğu'') was an electoral alliance formed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) with several other smaller left-wing parties and polit ...

, 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 Kocaköy ( ku, Karaz; ota, کاراز) is a municipality and district of Diyarbakır Province, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country loca ...

, 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 (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

. 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 The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla warfare, guerrilla List of guerrilla movements, movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based ...

to disarm. The BDP has

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. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...

. BDP supported Turkey's membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, 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 in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

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 ofte ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) acted as the

fraternal party A fraternal party is a political party officially affiliated with another, often larger or international, political party or governmental party, or several of them, notably when these share a political ideology. They may express this 'fraternity' ...

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 ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

and

Konya Province Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42. The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...

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 The Democratic Regions Party ( tr, Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi, DBP, ku, Partiya Herêman a Demokratîk, PHD) is a Kurdish political party in the Republic of Turkey. The pro-minority rights Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) acts as the fratern ...

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