The Free Cause Party ( Turkish: ''Hür Dava Partisi'', abbreviated as HÜDA PAR, ) is Sunni

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Islamist political party in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Origin

Following the decision to end armed struggle in 2002, activists of the

Hizbullah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramili ...

's Menzil group founded an association called "Solidarity with the Oppressed" ( tr, Mustazaflar ile Dayanışma Derneği or short Mustazaf Der) in 2003. It also became known as the Movement of the Oppressed ( Turkish: ''Mustazaflar Hareketi''). On 18 April 2010 Mustazaf Der organized a mass meeting in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

’s birthday (known as Mawlid). The Turkish police estimated that the event was attended by 2 million people. The organizers put the figure at over 2.5 million people. On 20 April 2010 a court in Diyarbakır ordered the closure of the Association for the Oppressed (Mustazaf-Der) on the grounds that it was “conducting activities on behalf of the terrorist organization Hizbollah.” The decision was confirmed by the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

on 11 May 2012. In late 2012, the Movement of the Oppressed announced its will to found a political party, basically to challenge the hegemony of the left-wing and

Kurdish nationalist Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...

Peace and Democracy Party 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 (DTP) in 20 ...

. On 17 December 2012, the Free Cause Party (''Hür Dava Partisi'') was founded. On 9 January 2013 the general headquarters in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

was opened. Societies affiliated with Hüda-Par operate under the umbrella organisation Lovers of Prophet ('','' ) particularly active in Kurdish Mawlid meetings.

Aims of the party

Hüda-Par calls for the constitutional recognition of the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

and

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European languag ...

, mother tongue education, the end to the 10 percent election threshold, and the decentralization of state power and strengthening of local administration. The party also advocates for restrictions on the freedom of religion and worship to be lifted, the headscarf ban ended, wants adultery criminalized, and religious marriages to be recognized. Moreover, the party demands that the Turkish state apologizes to Kurds and reinstate the original names of Kurdish-populated places. The party has largely been silent on the question of Kurdish autonomy or independence from Turkey.

Elections

Provincial results (2015 and 2018)

References

{{Kurdish parties in Turkey 2012 establishments in Turkey Far-right political parties in Turkey Islamic democratic political parties Islamic political parties in Turkey Kurdish political parties in Turkey Political parties established in 2012 Political parties in Turkey Sunni Islamic political parties Kurdish Islamism