The Labour Party (in Turkish: ''Emek Partisi'', EMEP) is a communist party in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its chairperson is Seyit Aslan. The party was founded as ''Emek Partisi'' (Labour Party, EP) in 1996. Due to its ban by the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, it was refounded with the name ''Emeğin Partisi'' (Party of Labour, EMEP), the same year. In 2005, the name "Emek Partisi" was reinstalled after the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

held the ban was a violation of Article 11 of the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a Supranational law, supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Draf ...

. Its ideological stance is in accord with the line of ICMLPO. In its programme, EMEP identifies its goal as creating an "Independent and Democratic Turkey". The party publishes the daily '' Evrensel'' (). The party is one of the participants in the People's Democratic Congress, a political initiative instrumental in founding the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in 2012. It is one of the few political parties in Turkey that recognize the Armenian deportations of 1915 as genocide.

Split in the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)

The Labour Party (EMEP) had been a member of the Peoples' Democratic Congress and had participated in the establishment of the HDP in 2012. However, the EMEP released a statement on 17 June 2014, announcing a split with the HDP. The split was attributed to the restructuring of the Kurdish nationalist

Peace and Democracy Party 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 conne ...

into a local-only party under the new name

Democratic Regions Party The Democratic Regions Party (, DBP, , PHD) is a Kurdish political party in the Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called Ea ...

(DBP), while the BDP's parliamentary caucus would be integrated into the HDP. This would, in turn, require the HDP's constitution to be altered in order to ensure greater compliance and conformity with the ideology of the BDP. This caused the EMEP to formally announce their secession from the HDP, but stated that they would continue their participation with the HDK. Despite the split, the Labour Party endorsed the HDP presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtaş for the 2014 presidential election and also announced that they would not be running in the June 2015 general election.

Electoral results

The party participated in 1999 General Elections, getting 51,756 votes, i.e. 0.17% of the total vote. In 2007 EMEP became a constituent party in the Thousand Hopes Alliance formed around DEHAP. The aim of the alliance was to present its candidates to the Turkish Parliament as independents in order to circumvent the 10% threshold which has been introduced in the Turkish Constitution in 1982. At the 2007 General Elections, the party gathered 26,574 votes, or 0.08 of the popular vote.

2023 elections

The party took part in the Labour and Freedom Alliance established on 25 August 2022 under the leadership of HDP for the

2023 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 14 May 2023, combining 2023 Turkish presidential election, presidential elections and 2023 Turkish parliamentary election, parliamentary elections to elect 600 members of the Grand National Assembly of Tu ...

. The party leadership of HDP has announced that it will hand over active political work to the Green Left Party (YSP) due to the closure case against it. On March 24, 2023, the alliance members HDP, the Labourist Movement Party (EHP) and the Social Freedom Party (TÖP) decided to enter the 2023 elections from the lists of the YSP. Later, on April 6, 2023, EMEP also decided to enter the elections from the lists of the YSP. Sevda Karaca was elected MP for

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

from 1st place and İskender Bayhan was elected MP for Istanbul 3rd District. Selma Gürkan was elected the chairperson of the EMEP in 2011. On 22 November 2020, Ercüment Akdeniz was elected the party's chairperson. Following Akdeniz's resignation, which he announced on social media, due to issues between him and the party's top management during the 2023 Turkish general elections, Selma Gürkan replaced him.

Media organs

The ''Evrensel'' newspaper was founded on 7 June 1995. The magazines ''Evrensel Kültür'' (), ''Özgürlük Dünyası'' () and ''Tîroj'', published by the party-affiliated publishing house Evrensel Basım Yayın, were shut down in 2016 by Decree Law No. 675 (KHK) under the

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...

. The publishing house was shut down by KHK in January 2017.

References

External links

Labour Party
Official website

Presentation at the official website (March 2006)
Evrensel Daily Newspaper
(in Turkish)
Evrensel Daily Newspaper Europe Edition
(Some pages in German) {{Authority control 1996 establishments in Turkey Communist parties in Turkey European Court of Human Rights cases involving Turkey Far-left politics in Turkey Hoxhaist parties International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties Labour and Freedom Alliance Labour parties Peoples' Democratic Congress Political parties established in 1996