The Democratic Society Party (, DTP, Kurdish: Partiya Civaka Demokratîk, PCD) was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social-democratic and had observer status in the Socialist International. It was considered to be the successor of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP). The party was established in 2005 and succeeded in getting elected more than ninety mayors in the municipal elections of 2009. On 11 December 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey banned the DTP, ruling that the party has become "focal point of activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the country and the nation". The ban has been widely criticized both by groups within Turkey and by several international organizations. The party was succeeded by the Peace and Democracy Party. History The party was founded in 2005, as the merger of the DEHAP and the Democratic Society Movement (DTH). DTH was set up by the veteran Kurdish politicians, former deputies Leyla Zana, Orhan Doğan, Hatip Dicle and Selim Sadak upon their release from prison in 2004. The party adopted a gender quota of 40% and the co-chair system on all decision making party levels. Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk were elected as the first co-chairs of the party. The party assumed the solving of the Kurdish question and a democratization of Turkey would also lead to the spread of democracy in the Middle East. Further it demanded the acceptance of the Kurdish identity in the constitution and eduction in the Kurdish language. On the 9 November 2007, Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk were replaced by Nurettin Demirtaş and Emine Ayna. However, Nurettin Demirtaş was imprisoned the following month because of a fake health report that enabled him to avoid military service. In May 2008 Nurettin Demirtaş was forced to resign after being released from prison and conscripted into the Turkish Army. Emine Ayna, MP for Mardin, was elected leader of the DTP in his place. Later in May, Ayna also became Chair of the DTP Parliamentary Group, when Ahmet Türk resigned. However, in July 2008 Ahmet Türk became, once again, chairman of the DTP. Peace process The AKP Government initiated a peace process in 2009 under the leadership of the Interior Minister Beşir Atalay. Despite the fact that the opposition parties of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) would raise concerns over the ethnic and national unity of the