HDP People’s Democracy Party - Turkey

= the HDP is being compared to Syriza and Podemos

Description

Omer Tekdemir:

"The election taking place in Turkey on June 7 is an important turning point for the country’s political system. A central issue in this contest is whether more power should be transferred from the Turkish parliament to the president – as is hoped by incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Standing against Erdoğan’s ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) is a new party called the HDP (People’s Democracy Party). This was formed out of a collection of 36 once independent members of parliament.

The HDP has emerged as a radical democratic project, built on the foundations laid by pro-Kurdish political parties (from HEP to the BDP). It seeks to challenge the established order, aiming to radically transform the AKP’s neo-liberal and conservative understanding of democracy with a so-called passive revolution. For many, it is Turkey’s equivalent to Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos political parties and social movements.

The HDP manifesto for the parliamentary election calls for bringing humanity back into politics. There is a strong emphasis on equal rights for women, LGBT people and workers and on social security for all. There are plans to increase the minimum wage, tackle youth unemployment and provide everyone with a basic package of free water and electricity. The party also emphasises free healthcare and education as well as peace – including by ending trade embargoes against Armenia.

When it comes to the EU, the HDP says it would pursue full membership “within the scope of our principles” – suggesting that like Syriza in Greece, the party has some scepticism about neo-liberal aspects of the union by offering an alternative EU project.

Significantly, the party would also shift the state away from religion and promote freedom of belief, ending the requirement for all children to have a religious education and abolishing the government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs – the body the oversees the practice of Islam in Turkey.

The HDP also has bold ideas about Kurdistan. Turkish politics has, for 30 years, been characterised by the battle between the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) and the Turkish armed forces. Over this time, 40,000 people have died and three million have been displaced as the PKK fought for a separate, “free” Kurdistan.

The HDP’s view is that Kurdish rights are more likely to be achieved by radically reforming Turkish democracy. It wants to decentralise Turkish politics, setting up regional assemblies to ensure that all “ethnic identities” have the right to self governance." (http://scroll.in/article/732412/turkey-gets-a-taste-for-european-style-radicalism-ahead-of-election)