Ethno-regionalist parties beyond Western Europe: Kurdish parties in Turkey

While there is an extensive literature on ethno-regionalist parties (ERPs) in Western Europe, Kurdish ERPs in Turkey remain undertheorized. Focusing on party ideology, organizational structure, and electoral strategy, this article advances three findings. First, ideologically, Kurdish ERPs consistently articulate a left-leaning program centered on labor and democratization, while increasingly integrating post-materialist tenets such as feminism and environmentalism. Second, organizationally, they function as movement parties with a highly resilient structure. Third, strategically, they expand beyond their ethnic stronghold through broad leftist alliances and a “Turkification” ( Türkiyelileşme ) process, becoming pivotal national actors. These findings underscore the need to account for the interaction between ethno-regional mobilization, political-institutional constraints, and party-movement linkages in understanding ERPs in the European periphery.