Puneet Varma (Editor)

Free Cause Party

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Leader
  
Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu

Religion
  
Sunni Islam

Founded
  
17 December 2012

Headquarters
  
Ehl-i Beyt Mah. Ceyhun Atıf Kansu Cad. Nehir Apt. No: 117-5 Balgat, Çankaya, Ankara

Ideology
  
Islamic democracy Pan-Islamism Conservatism Social justice

Political position
  
Right-wing to Far-right

Free Cause Party (Turkish: Hür Dava Partisi, abbreviated as Hüda-Par) is a political party based far-right Sunni Islamist political party in Turkey.

Contents

Development

Following the decision to end armed struggle in 2002, activists of the Hizbullah's Menzil group founded an association called "Solidarity with the Oppressed" (Turkish: Mustazaflar ile Dayanışma Derneği or short Mustazaf Der) in 2003. It also became known as the Movement of the Oppressed (Turkish: Mustazaflar Hareketi. On 18 April 2010 Mustazaf Der organized a mass meeting in Diyarbakır to celebrate the anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (known as Mawlid). The Turkish police estimated that the event was attended by 2 million people. The organizers put the figure at over 2.5 million people.

On 20 April 2010 a court in Diyarbakir ordered the closure of the Association for the Oppressed (Mustazaf-Der) on the grounds that it was “conducting activities on behalf of the terrorist organization Hizbollah.” The decision was confirmed by the Court of Cassation on 11 May 2012.

In late 2012, the Movement of the Oppressed announced its will to found a political party, basically to challenge the hegemony of the social democratic and Kurdish nationalist Peace and Democracy Party. On 17 December 2012, the Free Cause Party (Hür Dava Partisi) was founded. On 9 January 2013 the general headquarters in Ankara was opened. Until mid-February 2013 branches on provincial level were opened in Kayseri Province, Diyarbakır Province, Bingöl Province, Bursa Province, İzmir Province, Van Province, Şanlıurfa Province, Adana Province, Malatya Province, Elazığ Province, and Mersin Province.

Hüda-Par, the abbreviated form of the party's name is synonymous with the Arabic word Hizbollah, both interpreted as the "God's Party", emphasising that the party is a front for the otherwise illegal Hizbollah. Societies affiliated with Hüda-Par operate under the umbrella organisation Lovers of Prophet (Turkish: Peygamber Sevdalıları particularly active in Kurdish Mawlid meetings.

Aims of the party

Islamist party calls for the constitutional recognition of the Kurds and Kurdish language, mother tongue education, the end to the 10 percent election threshold, and the decentralization of state power and strengthening of local administration. The party also advocates for restrictions on the freedom of religion and worship to be lifted, the headscarf ban ended, wants adultery criminalized, and religious marriages to be recognized.

Elections

The results of the 2014 local elections and the general elections of 2015.

References

Free Cause Party Wikipedia