TheKurdish Political Movement or theKurdish Liberation Movement,^[1][2] refers to the movement that seeks to realize the political demands ofKurdish people living in the geocultural region calledKurdistan^[3] in the lands ofTurkey,Iraq,Syria, andIran, such as education in theirnative language, self-determination, autonomy or an independent state.^[4][5][6] In the context of Turkey, this movement is being pursued by democratic means through left-wingethnic political parties, as well as throughPKK affiliated militant groups.

After the switch toTurkey's multi-party era in 1945, several Kurdishethnic parties have been established. The first Kurdish minority interests party came into the political arena in 1990 with the establishment of thePeople's Labour Party (HEP), which was banned by the court in 1993 for being a source of separatism.^[7] Parties that advocate for Kurdish interests have since been ephemeral, often participating in one or two elections before being banned by theConstitutional Court, only to re-organize under another political party. This was also a recurring theme within theHEP tradition.

The Kurdish-interests movement in Turkey's political arena has been controversial, with many condemning the movement as a pathway for separatism and platform for pro-PKK ideologues.^[8] While the PKK does not have a structural relationship or hierarchical control over parties like the People's Democratic Party,HDP, they have aligning political visions, interpersonal and familial ties, and a shared experience of political repression.^[9] On the other hand, these ties have heavily fostered the discourse that Kurdish-interest parties "carry terrorists into the parliament" and has influenced not only the legitimacy of these parties but has also shaped the campaigning and electoral behaviors of other actors.^[10]

Another systematic struggle the Kurdish political movement used to face was the 10%electoral threshold. Minority Rights International, a U.K.-based non governmental organization, has stated that the 10% threshold prevents minority parties’ representation in the political arena. Their 2007 report highlights the fact that while pro-Kurdish parties have consistently acquired the highest percentage of votes in areas the Kurdish population is concentrated in, they have failed to reach the national 10% threshold.^[11] Since 2015, Kurdish-interest parties, starting with the HDP, have been able to poll above the threshold in general elections by successfully courting Turkish leftists.^[12] In 2022, this threshold was lowered to 7%.

On 7 June 1990, seven members of theGrand National Assembly of Turkey who were expelled from theSocial Democratic People's Party (SHP), together formed thePeople's Labor Party (HEP) and were led byAhmet Fehmi Işıklar. The Party was banned in July 1993 by theConstitutional Court of Turkey for promoting separatism.^[13] The party paved the way formany successors which had a nearly identical ideology, mainly liberalism andradical democracy. The first successor was theDemocracy Party, which was founded in May 1993. The Democracy Party was banned on 16 June 1994 for promoting Kurdish nationalism^[13] and four of the party's members:Leyla Zana,Hatip Dicle,Orhan Doğan andSelim Sadak were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Zana was the first Kurdish woman to be elected into parliament.^[14] However, she sparked a major controversy by saying, during her inauguration into parliament, "I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people." In June 2004, after spending 10 years in jail, a Turkish court ordered the release of all four prisoners.^[15]

In May 1994, Kurdish lawyer Murat Bozlak formed thePeople's Democracy Party (HADEP),^[13] which won 1,171,623 votes, or 4.17% of the national vote during thegeneral elections on 24 December 1995^[16] and 1,482,196 votes or 4.75% in theelections on 18 April 1999, but it failed to win any seats due to the 10% threshold.^[17] Duringlocal elections in 1999 they won control over 37 municipalities and gained representation in 47 cities and hundreds of districts. In 2002, the party became a member ofSocialist International. After surviving a closure case in 1999, HADEP was finally banned on 13 March 2003 on the grounds that it had become a "centre of illegal activities which included aiding and abetting the PKK". TheEuropean Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that the ban violated article 11 of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights which guarantees freedom of association.^[18]

TheDemocratic People's Party (DEHAP) was formed on 24 October 1997 and succeeded HADEP.^[19] DEHAP won 1,955,298 votes or 6,23% during theNovember 3, 2002 general election.^[20] However, it performed disappointingly during theMarch 28, 2004 local elections, where their coalition with the SHP and theFreedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) only managed to win 5.1% of the vote, only winning in Batman, Hakkâri, Diyarbakır and Şırnak Provinces, the majority of Kurdish voters voting for the AKP.^[21] After being released in 2004 Leyla Zana formed the Democratic Society Movement (DTH), which merged with the DEHAP into theDemocratic Society Party (DTP) in 2005^[22] under the leadership ofAhmet Türk.^[23]

The Democratic Society Party decided to run their candidates asindependent candidates during theJune 22, 2007 general elections, to get around the 10% threshold rule. Independents won 1,822,253 votes or 5.2% during the elections, resulting in a total of 27 seats, 23 of which went to the DTP.^[24] The party performed well during theMarch 29, 2009 local elections, however, winning 2,116,684 votes or 5.41% and doubling the number of governors from four to eight and increasing the number of mayors from 32 to 51.^[25] For the first time they won a majority in the southeast and, aside from the Batman, Hakkâri, Diyarbakır and Şırnak provinces which DEHAP had won in 2004, the DTP managed to win Van, Siirt andIğdır Provinces from the AKP.^[26] On 11 December 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey voted to ban the DTP, ruling that the party had links to the PKK just like in case of previous closed Kurdish parties^[27] and authorities claimed that it is seen as guilty of spreading "terrorist propaganda".^[28] Chairman Ahmet Türk and legislatorAysel Tuğluk were expelled from Parliament, and they and 35 other party members were banned from joining any political party for five years.^[29] TheEuropean Union released a statement, expressing concern over the court's ruling and urging Turkey to change its policies towards political parties.^[30] Major protests erupted throughout Kurdish communities in Turkey in response to the ban.^[27]

The DTP was succeeded by thePeace and Democracy Party (BDP), under the leadership ofSelahattin Demirtaş. The BDP called on its supporters to boycott theTurkish constitutional referendum on 12 September 2010 because the constitutional change did not meet minority demands.Gültan Kışanak, the BDP co-chair, released a statement saying that "we will not vote against the amendment and prolong the life of the current fascist constitution. Nor will we vote in favour of the amendments and support a new fascist constitution."^[31] Due to the boycott Hakkâri (9.05%), Şırnak (22.5%), Diyarbakır (34.8%), Batman (40.62%), Mardin (43.0%), Van (43.61), Siirt (50.88%), Iğdır (51.09%), Muş (54.09%),Ağrı (56.42%), Tunceli (67.22%),Şanlıurfa (68.43%),Kars (68.55%), and Bitlis Province (70.01%) had the lowest turnouts in the country, compared to a 73.71% national average. Tunceli was the only Kurdish majority province where a majority of the population voted "no" during the referendum.^[32] During theJune 12, 2011 national elections, BDP came up with a new strategy to tackle the 10% issue, which brings the question of free representation by requiring that parties need 10% of the vote to be represented in parliament, and formally joined forces with the left, green, and various minority groups to run joint independent candidates, naming this electoral alliance theLabour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc.^[33] The BDP nominated 61 independent candidates, winning 2,819,917 votes or 6.57% and increasing its number of seats from 20 to 36. The BDP won the most support in Şırnak (72.87%), Hakkâri (70.87%), Diyarbakır (62.08%) and Mardin (62.08%) Provinces.^[28]

Right after the 2011 Elections in July, in October 2011 the members of the alliance formed thePeoples' Democratic Congress (HDK).^[34]Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was formed out of the HDK with aims to be represented in parliament. In 2014, parliamentary members of the BDP joined HDP, and the BDP was renamed asDemocratic Regions Party (DBP).^[35] Having separated from electoral politics, they began organizing for autonomous rule of the region, and a conflict between state security forces and organizers began which ended with almost all DBP officials being arrested. HDP since has been the current agent representing the Kurdish movement in the Turkish political arena, and it unites various political movements pertaining to an array of social minority groups and civil society organizations, which have previously mostly failed to be represented in parliament, to secure a stronger vote.^[36]

HDP's participated in its first election by nominatingSelahattin Demirtaş for president, he received 9.77% of the vote, the best result for a Kurdish political party in Turkish history. In theJune 2015 elections, HDP took adifferent direction and ran Kurdish nationalist candidates as party for the first time instead of using the strategy of running independent candidates to avoid falling under the ten per cent electoral threshold for political parties.^[37] By courting both Kurdish nationalists and Turkish leftists, the party received 13% of the vote, well above the 10% threshold, causing the AKP to lose its majority mandate for the first time since its creation. With coalition talks going nowhere in the hung parliament, the government called for another election forNovember that year, where HDP again polled above the threshold and unseated the ultra-nationalist MHP as the third largest party in parliament. In2018, Kurdish MPs successfully ran under its banner again, and for a second time the party nominatedSelahattin Demirtaş as its presidential candidate. In the2019 local elections HDP did not run candidates in Ankara and Istanbul, instead endorsing CHP candidatesMansur Yavaş andEkrem İmamoğlu, who subsequently won.^{[citation needed]}

In the lead up to the2023 general election, the Constitutional Courtcharged the HDP with having links to the PKK. With a ban imminent, the Kurds competed under the banner of theParty of the Greens and the Left Future in anelectoral alliance with theWorkers' Party of Turkey (TİP) in the parliamentary election, and endorsed theCHP leaderKemal Kılıçdaroğlu for president. The party renamed itself to People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM).^{[citation needed]}

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TheRights and Freedoms Party was founded in 2002 as an offshoot of DEHAP. It is also a successor of theDemocracy and Peace Party [tr] (DBP) itself a DEP offshoot. The party is accused of having ties to theSocialist Party of Kurdistan [tr] (PSK).^[38]

TheFree Cause Party was the first Kurdish political party in Turkey to take an Islamist turn rather than secular. It has ties toKurdish Hezbollah. Lately, it supports presidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan and joined thePeople's Alliance.^[39]

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  HEP tradition

Grand National Assembly
Election	Party	Popular Vote			Number of seats		Status	Map
		Votes	%	± pp	Seats	+/–
1991	HEP[a]	753,806[b]	3.09%	3.09 pp	21 / 550	21	Opposition
1995	HADEP	1,171,623	4.16%	1.07 pp	0 / 550	21	Extra-parliamentary opposition
1999	HADEP	1,482,196	4.83%	0.67 pp	0 / 550		Extra-parliamentary opposition
	DBP	24,620
2002	DEHAP	1,960,660	6.21%	1.38 pp	0 / 550		Extra-parliamentary opposition
2007	BUA[c]	1,334,518	3.81%	2.40 pp	22 / 550	22	Opposition
2011	EDÖB[d]	2,435,133	5.67%	1.86 pp	36 / 550	14	Opposition
June 2015	HDP	6,058,489	13.41%	7.74 pp	80 / 550	44	Opposition
	HÜDA PAR	70,121			0 / 550
	HAK-PAR	58,716			0 / 550
November 2015	HDP	5,148,085	10.76%	2.42 pp	59 / 550	21	Opposition
	HAK-PAR	108,583			0 / 550
2018	HDP	5,867,302	12.01%	1.02 pp	67 / 600	8	Opposition
	HÜDA PAR	155,539			0 / 550
2023	YSGP[e]	4,800,607	8.97%	3.04 pp	61 / 600	6[f]	Opposition
	HAK-PAR	42,509			0 / 550

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Presidential elections
Election date	Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Position	Map
2014	Selahattin Demirtaş	3,958,048	9.77	3rd
2018	Selahattin Demirtaş	4,205,219	8.40	3rd

  HEP tradition

Election date	Party	Popular Vote	Percentage	Municipalities		Councillors		Map
				Metropolitan	District	Municipal	Provincial
1999	HADEP	1,094,761	3.48%	1 / 15	37 / 3,215
	DBP	6,593	0.02%	0 / 15	1 / 3,215
2004	DEHAP[a]	765,749[b]	2.37%	1 / 16	56 / 3,215
2009	DTP/BDP	2,277,813	5.70%	1 / 16	96 / 2,903	1,169 / 32,392
	HAK-PAR	29,392	0.07%	0 / 16	0 / 2,903	0 / 32,392
2014	BDP/HDP	2,611,127	6.29%	2 / 30	97 / 1,351	1,441 / 20,458	129 / 1,251
	HÜDA PAR	87,726	0.21%	0 / 30	0 / 1,351	6 / 20,458	0 / 1,251
	HAK-PAR	35,256	0.08%	0 / 30	1 / 1,351	6 / 20,458	0 / 1,251
2019	HDP	2,409,485	5.60%	3 / 30	57 / 1,351	1,230 / 20,745	101 / 1,272
2024	DEM	2,625,588	5.70%
	HÜDA PAR	253,648	0.55%
	HAK-PAR	31,633	0.07%

• Democratic confederalism
• Syrian Democratic Forces
• Serhildan
• Yekbûn
• Civil Friday prayer

• Kurdistan independence movement
• Kurdish nationalism in Turkey
• Kurdish political parties in Turkey
• Kurdish separatism in Turkey
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict
• Left-wing politics in Turkey
• Political movements in Turkey

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