How the Kurdish Diaspora in Germany Influences and Shapes the Pro-Kurdish HDP

The literature on the transnational diaspora politics in conflict settings lack studies on the diaspora Kurds and their electoral or non-electoral ways of participation in the political life for their community of their country of origin. This work aims to contribute to a broader understanding of how and to what extent politically active Kurds from Turkey use the diasporic space to transform the political process in their homeland particularly via the pro-Kurdish party, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) since its foundation in 2012. For this study, Germany is selected as the case country on the grounds that it has the largest Kurdish population outside of Turkey and accordingly the major source of the Kurdish voice abroad. The changes to the Turkish election law in 2012 that enabled external voting gave the Kurds living abroad with Turkish citizenship new levels of influence. According to the results of the last two Turkish parliamentary elections that took place in 2015, Justice and Development Party (AKP) and HDP took the lead in the extraterritorial electoral districts whereas according solely to the in- country election results HDP came in fourth place. HDP acts as the key political umbrella organization, unlike the other Turkish political parties, formed an unusual transnational link that is organised and regulated within the diaspora. This situation underlines the Kurds’ political strategies and practices as a diasporic population becoming more prominent. Therefore, diaspora Kurds’ object has progressed from elevating Kurds’ political stance in Turkey to raising awareness of the world’s largest stateless nation in world politics.