HEDEP to change abbreviation following top court’s objection on ‘similarity to closed pro-Kurdish party’

Duvar English

Spokesperson of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) Ayşegül Doğan on Nov. 24 said that the party’s abbreviation would be changed in response to the objection of the Court of Cassation, Turkey’s top court concerning political parties.

Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Cassation previously decided that the pro-Kurdish party’s acronym resembled another pro-Kurdish party, People's Democracy Party (HADEP). 

The HADEP operated between 1994 and 2003 and was closed by the Constitutional Court (AYM) on charges of "being the center of illegal activities” due to “its ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).”

The HEDEP’s predecessor Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has been also faced the same allegations, and been on trial on the AYM for its closure. 

Spokesperson Doğan criticized the top court’s decision coming months before the local elections and deemed the decision as “another relentless conspiracy against their political tradition.”

She added, “(ECHR) ruled against Turkey and convicted it in the HADEP closure case. Of course, we will not deny the tradition we have come from. HADEP constitutes one of the important corners of our struggle.”

Doğan underscored that they know what connotations HEDEP had and what connotations were feared and added, “They are afraid of us because we do not give up our stubbornness and insistence and we do not abandon the democratic political arena.”

Doğan also stated that the Court of Cassation asked for some revisions in their party bylaws and that they would act according to them because the party did not want these to affect their local elections agenda. 

Accordingly, the party would not change the name but the abbreviation.