DEMOKRASI PARTISI

(DEP)

   DEP, or the Democracy Party, was a Kurdish party in Turkey that succeeded the Halkin Emek Partisi (HEP), or Peoples Labor Party, when it was closed down by the government in 1993 and was itself closed down by the government in 1994 and succeeded by the Halkin Demokrasi Partisi (HADEP), or Peoples Democracy Party.

   In March 1994, the Turkish government lifted the immunity of six DEP members of parliament, including Leyla Zana, and eventually sentenced them to prison on charges that they were trying to destroy the unity of the Turkish state. DEP denied the charges, and those imprisoned became noted objects of extended human rights campaigns in the West. Other DEP parliament members escaped to the West, where they eventually joined the Kurdistan Parliament in Exile.