WKI Condemns Imminent Ban of HADEP, Turkey’s Largest Kurdish-based Party
Calls on OSCE and other International Institutions to Send Election Monitors
Washington Kurdish Institute President, Dr. Najmaldin Karim, issued a statement condemning the latest attempt to ban the People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) – ten weeks before national and local elections on April 18. HADEP, whose leadership disavows violence and separatism, was formed in 1994 after the Democracy Party (DEP) was banned and its parliamentary deputies jailed or forced into exile. HADEP leader Murat Bozlak and 100 other party officials and members are currently in prison awaiting trial for alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). At the end of November 1998, Turkish police detained 3,000 HADEP supporters, two of whom were beaten to death. In 1995 national elections, HADEP received more than 1.2 million votes, despite widespread intimidation of candidates and supporters, who faced arrest, torture and murder.
The WKI President stated, “This travesty fits a consistent pattern of disregard for basic democratic principles. Since the 1982 Constitution was imposed following a military coup, 14 political parties have been banned. The campaign against HADEP and its predecessors represents a blatant attempt by the military dominated establishment to deny Kurdish citizens an avenue for political expression. This policy undermines democracy and strengthens all who use violence to forward political agendas. As previous voting trends have shown, such a policy significantly strengthens the Islamic-based Virtue Party. This crude attempt to limit free expression and free association directly contravenes Turkey’s stated commitments to international human rights standards set in the Helsinki Accords and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
“While US officials take every opportunity to condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization, their silence in the face of well documented violence against Kurds and HADEP raises serious questions. It is cruelly ironic that while the US threatens the Serbian regime to grant autonomy for Albanians in Kosovo, it ignores the tragedy of Kurds in Turkey, millions of whom have been forcibly uprooted in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that would make Slobodan Milosevic proud. US Government support for a regime which continues to deny Kurdish cultural and political rights ensures continuation of a bloody conflict that destabilizes the entire region.”
Escalation of anti-HADEP rhetoric creates a climate that threatens the conduct of free and fair elections. I urge international institutions, including the OSCE and Council of Europe, to send election monitors to southeast Turkey. If the US administration is unwilling to speak out against the campaign against HADEP, at the very least it should support free and fair elections, as it does in other countries struggling towards democracy.”