Özet:

Most of the parties representing the legal Kurdish political movement in Türkiye have been dissolved by the Constitutional Court, except for those dissolved by the party itself. The Peoples' Democratic Party, which was considered the last representative of the legal Kurdish political movement until the closure case filed against it in 2021, has come to the fore with the claim of being a party that embraces almost all segments of society. Although the Party is essentially a leftist party, it has pursued populist electoral strategies in all the elections it has competed in. However, the Party's discourse and goals regarding radical democracy were not found sincere by large segments of the society due to its relations with the terrorist organization PKK, and the Party could not get rid of its appearance as an ethnic party. This study aims to examine how HDP affected the legal Kurdish political movement. For this purpose, the Party's bylaws and program are examined from its foundation until the closing case is filed, and the party's performance in the elections is evaluated together with the events that took place. The study concludes that the HDP has not been able to develop a different policy regarding the solution of the “Kurdish question”, which is the main issue of the Kurdish political movement but achieved a significant transformation in the political movement in terms of producing a left populist policy instead of a classical leftist policy.

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