One state, one nation, one flag—one gender? HDP as a challenger of the Turkish nation state and its gendered perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe societal project proposed by the Halkların Demokratik Partisi (Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP), is an attempt at circumventing authoritarian statism in Turkey by (1) participating in representative politics as an alliance of systematically marginalized groups in Turkish politics and achieving significant electoral success, (2) developing grassroots structures based on civil liberties and women’s liberation put into practice by bottom-up radical democratic structures. While the narrative under the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) after the June 2015 elections can mainly be described as a political re-emphasis of the republic’s factory settings—one nation, one flag, one state, one language—the recent authoritarian shift under nationalist parameters is analysed as the government’s attempt to restore hegemony through the re-securitization of the Kurdish issue as a response to HDP’s success as an anti-status quo and women’s party.