Turkey: Kurdish Party Prepares for Return to Parliament

Using a successful campaign strategy that saw all its candidates running as independents in order to circumvent Turkey's high election threshold, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) managed to get 22 of its members elected in the recent Turkish elections, enough to allow the stealth candidates to regroup in parliament under their party's banner.

Although some forecasts had predicted the party winning as many as 35 seats in the July 22 election, the seats won represent the largest electoral victory ever by a Kurdish party and the first time a pro-Kurdish party will sit in parliament since 1991.

The victory, analysts say, serves as an important test of both the party's and the Turkish public's political maturity. It will also present a good opportunity for making progress in resolving the lingering Kurdish problem. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"If we had from an earlier date allowed the Kurds representation in parliament, I think we would have been much more successful in integrating the Kurdish demands into the parliamentary process, so this is a new window of opportunity to do that," says Sahin Alpay, a professor of political science at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University. "But there is also a risk of them becoming a source of conflict in the parliament."

Added Alpay: "The fact that their views and demands will be heard in parliament is a welcome thing.