DEMOKRATIK HALKIN PARTISI

(DEHAP)

   DEHAP, or the Democratic Peoples Party, ran in the Turkish parliamentary elections held on 3 November 2002 as a thinly disguised version of the pro-Kurdish Halkin Demokrasi Partisi (HADEP). DEHAP had previously been created as a hedge against the banning of HADEP, which itself had succeeded previously banned pro-Kurdish parties. Formally, DEHAP was an alliance of HADEP and two much smaller leftist parties. DEHAP received 6.22 percent of the national vote, an increase of 1.49 percent over HADEP's total in the previous election of 1998, but this was not enough to meet the 10 percent requirement to enter the Turkish parliament. DEHAP did obtain more than 40 percent of the vote in several southeastern provinces that contained large ethnic Kurdish populations. On 17 August 2005, DEHAP announced its merger into the Demokratik Toplum Partisi (DTP), or Democratic Society Party.

   See also AK Partisi.