People's Labor Party
People's Labor Party or People's Work Party (Turkish: Halkın Emek Partisi, HEP) was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. It was founded on 7 June 1990[1] by seven members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly expelled from the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). HEP was led by Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar. Due to the overt promotion of Kurdish cultural and political rights the party was banned by the Constitutional Court in July 1993.[2] The party was succeeded by the Democracy Party (DEP) established in May 1993.[1]
Vedat Aydın, the Diyarbakır branch chairman of HEP, was found dead on a road near Malatya on 7 July 1991, two days after armed men had taken him from his home in Diyarbakır. His wife, Sükran Aydın states that her husband’s murder was a turning point and that there was a sudden increase in the number of unsolved murders in Turkey's southeastern region following his death. She says that JİTEM, a clandestine unit within the Turkish Gendarmerie, was responsible for his murder.[3]
References
- 1 2 Aylin Güney. "The People's Democracy Party" (PDF). Political Parties in Turkey. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
- ↑ Güney 2002, p. 124.
- ↑ Melik Duvakli (2 March 2009). "Wife of slain Kurdish politician says husband killed by JİTEM". Today's Zaman. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
Şükran Aydın: a clandestine unit within the gendarmerie is responsible for the murder.
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