User:Dddefne/Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)

For a long time after the founding of the Turkish Republic and the switch to the parliamentary regime, Kurdish political parties did not exist. After the switch to the multiparty era in 1945 and the beginning of contestation from the Kurdish activist groups against state oppression, a number of underground political parties emerged who believed in armed resistance. A legal and recognized pro-Kurdish party did not come into the political arena until 1990 with the establishment of HEP. The pro-Kurdish voice in Turkey’s political arena has been a constant debate throughout several governments and parliamentary settings, with unstable policies in trying to demobilize separatist movements with alleged PKK affiliations. While a fully ethnocentric Kurdish party has never come into the political arena, Kurdish affiliated parties in the 28 years from HEP to HDP have tried to sustain their existence in Turkish politics via various strategies.