List of illegal political parties in Turkey

Illegal political parties in Turkey lists those organisations founded in or carried out activities mainly targeted to Turkey that (a) consider themselves to be political parties as indicated in their self-assigned names, (b) are not or cannot be established under the laws of Republic of Turkey.

Some of these organisations have carried out terrorist activities and hence can also be classified as terrorist organisations. Indeed Turkish public authorities prefer either that denomination or that of illegal organisations ("yasadışı örgütler" in Turkish). However the term illegal political party ("yasadışı siyasal parti" or "yasadışı siyasi parti" in Turkish) is also used in official documents [See for example the decision no. 2349/1992 of 15th of November 1992 of the Eight Chamber of Council of State: http://www.danistay.gov.tr/kerisim/ozet.jsp?ozet=metin&dokid=12580] .

Active illegal parties

According to Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security (Turkish police) there are 12 active terrorist organisations in Turkey [TÜRKİYE'DE HALEN FAALİYETLERİNE DEVAM EDEN BAŞLICA TERÖR ÖRGÜTLERİ: http://www.egm.gov.tr/temuh/terorgrup1.html] 11 of which are illegal political parties:

*"Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi/Cephesi " (DHKP/C) (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front)
*"Maoist Komünist Partisi" (MKP) (Maoist Communist Party)
*"TKP/ML - KONFERANS" (Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist)
*"Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti" (MLKP) (Marxist Leninist Communist Party)
*PKK/KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Workers Party)
*"Kürdistan Devrim Partisi" (PŞK)(Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan)
*"Kürdistan Demokrat Partisi/Bakur" (PDK/Bakur) (Democrat Party of Kurdistan/North) ["Bakur" means "north" in Kurdish. The list uses a title that is partly Turkish and partly Kurdish.]
*(Turkish) Kurdish-Hizbullah (Hezbollah)
*"Hilafet Devleti" (HD) (The Caliphate State) (also known as "Kaplancılar")
*"İslami Büyük Doğu Akıncılar Cephesi" (İBDA/C) (Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front)
*"Tevhid-Selam" ("Kudüs Ordusu") (The Army of Jerusalem)

The 12^th organisation is the Turkish branch of El Qaeda which is a network instead of a political party [MidEastWeb for Coexistence. 2004. "Inside Al-Qaeda": http://www.mideastweb.org/alqaeda.htm] .

"Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan" (TAK), that is Kurdistan Freedom Falcons in Kurdish, is not on the list despite being designated as a terrorist organisation by the USA, EU and the UK. However US designation of TAK as a terrorist organisation has taken place in January 2008 [ [http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/11/us.turkey/index.html?section=cnn_latest U.S. labels Kurdish group as terrorist - CNN.com ] ] . It is not clear whether or not TAK carries out militant activies only or both militant and political activities.

Inactive illegal parties

According to H. A. Özhan there are eight important organisations that are illegal political parties in the history of modern Turkey [Özhan, H. A. 1998. "Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet Tarihi Boyunca Siyasi Partilerimiz ". "Yeni Türkiye" 23. A summary is available from the WWW: http://www.hacialiozhan.com/arastirma6.html.] . Only TKP/ML from his list is still active. The other seven are as follows:

*"Türkiye Komünist Partisi" (Communist Party of Turkey)
*"Türkiye İhtilalci İşçi Köylü Partisi" (Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey)
*"Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Ordusu" (People's Liberation Army of Turkey)
*"Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi" (People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey)
*"Türkiye Komünist Emek Partisi" (Communist Labor Party of Turkey)
*"Türkiye Komünist Partisi/Birlik" (Communisty Party of Turkey/Union)
*"Türkiye Devrimci Komünist Partisi" (Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey)

Other organisations that can be categorized as illegal political parties in Turkey include the following:

*Islamic Party of Kurdistan
*Kurdish Islamic Movement

ee also

* List of political parties in Turkey
* Communist Party of Turkey for a list of communist parties in Turkey

References