The People's Labour Party (Turkish: Halkın Emek Partisi, HEP), sometimes translated as the People's Work Party, was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. It was founded on 7 June 1990 by seven members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly expelled from the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). They were expelled from the SHP for having attended a Kurdish congress organized by the Kurdish Institute in Paris. HEP was led by . It first viewed itself as a party for the whole of Turkey. But that a party represented in the Turkish Parliament openly demanded more rights for the Kurds was new to Turkish politics. Its politicians held speeches in front of audiences of up to 10'000 people in South East Turkey, which was deemed a danger to the public security by the Turkish authorities. In view