File 27 - Demokrasi Partisi and Mehmet H. Dicle

9 items

Materials pertaining to the application filed on 23 August 1994 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 25141/94, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 79 with Kevin Boyle named as representative on the application form; this case, however, was not allocated to the Kurdish Litigation Project) regarding the banning and forced dissolution of the Democracy Party (Turkish: Demokrasi Partisi, DEP; Kurdish (Kurmanji): Partiya Demokrasiyê) on 16 June 1994 by the Turkish Government.
Founded on 7 May 1993, the party was pro-Kurdish. Ahmet Türk, the former chairman of the People's Labor Party (HEP) and most of the former MPs of the HEP joined the party after its first party congress on the 27 June 1993. Yaşar Kaya was the first party chair. The party decided to launch a peace campaign focused on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict which would take during August 1993. The campaign was prohibited by the Turkish authorities and the events that were planned in Diyarbakır and Batman were cancelled. On 17 September 1993 Kaya was arrested due to his participation at public event in Germany. He was released on the 8 December of the same year and Kaya fled to Germany. On 12 December 1993, Hatip Dicle was elected the new chairman. Dicle was a known supporter of the PKK and demanded it be viewed as a political party and not a terrorist organisation. The party became divided over the issue of the PKK, and two factions - moderate and radical - appeared. Due to the support of Kurdish rights, the members of the HEP and DEP came under widespread attacks.
Between 1991 and 1994, more than 50 HEP/DEP members were murdered. As a result, the party decided to withdraw from the municipal elections which were planned to take place on 27 March 1994. On 2 March 1994, the Turkish parliament lifted the immunity of two deputies from the DEP. Orhan Doğan and Hatip Dicle were detained. On 2 April 1994, a deadly attack on the Bazaar in Istanbul occurred for which the Turkish Government blamed the PKK and the DEP. In reaction to the attack, the Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller deemed the DEP a cover for the PKK and called for end of a PKK presence in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Six party members were imprisoned and the party was banned. On 8 August 1994, deputies Orhan Doğan, Leyla Zana, Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle were sentenced to 15 years in prison. They were released in June 2009 following a decision of Turkey's Appeal Court after Turkey experienced some pressure from the European Parliament, which asked for their release and condemned their imprisonment.
The DEP was succeeded by the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), established in May 1994.
In December 2002, the European Court of Human Rights held DEP's dissolution to be contrary to Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of association) and ordered Turkey to pay €200,000 to be distributed among the party’s members. A full copy of the judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-65370. Materials from the related cases (Sadak v. Turkey, Sadak and others v. Turkey, and Sakık and others v. Turkey) also involving Dicle, Türk, and the imprisoned DEP deputies can be found at A44/43/6/72.

This material is closed to access until 1 November 2073.

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