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,
Turkey Kurdish journalists, activists and politicians. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the AKP government has waged one of the world's biggest crackdowns on media freedom. A large number of journalists have been arrested using charges of "terrorism" and "anti-state activities" such as the Ergenekon and Balyoz cases, while thousands have been investigated on charges such as "denigrating Turkishness" or "insulting Islam" in an effort to sow self-censorship. As of 2017, the CPJ identified 81 jailed journalists in Turkey (including the editorial staff of "Cumhuriyet", Turkey's oldest newspaper still in circulation), all directly held for their published work (ranking 1st