Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) The Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkish: "Halkların Demokratik Partisi" (HDP), Kurdish: "Partiya Demokratîk a Gelan"), or Democratic Party of the Peoples, is a pro-minority political party in Turkey. Generally left-wing, the party places a strong emphasis on participatory democracy, radical democracy, feminism, minority rights, youth rights and egalitarianism. It is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and consultative member of the Socialist International. Aspiring to fundamentally challenge the existing Turkish-Kurdish divide and other existing parameters in Turkish politics, the HDP was founded in 2012 as the political wing of the Peoples' Democratic Congress,
Cumhuriyet making a stand against the AKP government's mounting pressure. Shortly thereafter, 's former editor-in-chief Can Dündar and the newspaper's Ankara representative Erdem Gül were arrested facing sentences up to life imprisonment. During the last decade, the newspaper's staff has also been physically attacked, with the 2008 molotov attack against "Cumhuriyet"'s headquarters in Istanbul's Şişli district being particularly significant. Also notable is the attempted assassination of Can Dündar in 2016. "Cumhuriyet" contributors such as Uğur Mumcu, Bahriye Üçok, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Muammer Aksoy, Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Onat Kutlar, and Cavit Orhan Tütengil had been assassinated in the past. By the end of