Denk (Dutch pronunciation:[dɛŋk]; Dutch for "think" and Turkish for "equal" or "balanced"[18]) is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on a minority rights platform.[19] It is legally registered as "Politieke Beweging Denk" (Political Movement Denk).[20]
Although the party has been colloquially described as a "Muslim political party", Denk "does not promote Muslim candidates as do most similar political parties in Europe".[12] Indeed, Denk's current party leader and lijsttrekker in the House of Representatives, Stephan van Baarle, is an agnostic.[22]
The party BIJ1 was founded by Sylvana Simons when she left Denk in 2016, and the two parties overlap substantially on minority rights issues but are divergent on cultural liberal aspects (wherein Denk is more conservative).
History
Denk was founded by Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk after leaving the Labour Party on 13 November 2014. Their resignations were prompted by proposals by Deputy Prime Minister and party leader Lodewijk Asscher that a number of Turkish Islamist organisations be monitored for interfering with the integration of Dutch citizens of Muslim origin.[23] This came after an internal party debate sparked by a report incorrectly stating that 90% of young Turkish Dutch supported ISIS.[24][25] On 9 February 2015, they named their parliamentary group "Denk", and they published a political manifesto for the establishment of a movement focused on a tolerant society through measures such as the introduction of a registry of racists who could not be hired by the government.[26]
The results from the 2017 election ensured that Kuzu and Öztürk would remain in parliament together with new arrival Farid Azarkan, who is the current party leader.
Manifesto
The movement drew up a political manifesto in February 2015, from which the political party Denk emerged in November 2016.[27][28][non-primary source needed]
The Denk programme argues for the following five points:
The movement wants to establish a monument in memory of labour, and they want knowledge of migration history as a key target in education. They propose that the term "integration" should be replaced by the word "acceptance". The movement would abolish the term "immigrant". It notes that people with a non-western background are less likely to find a job or internship and often have negative experiences with law enforcement. The manifesto states that racism in the Netherlands is structural and institutional in nature and therefore wants a so-called "racism registry" to be set up, in which manifestations of racism are registered.
The movement proposes that in education, diversity in the classroom is commensurate with the diversity of the class (including the teacher). The movement has a policy that in every school in the Netherlands, both in primary and secondary education, study of Chinese, Arabic, and Turkish must be introduced as optional subjects. According to the movement, education in these languages will be useful for the country's economy and international relations. According to the manifesto, imams should not only be appointed to mosques, but also in health care, prisons and the armed forces.
The party carries the program advanced by the International Institute for Scientific Research, based in The Hague, with the purpose of decolonization.[12] Among its policies, Denk seeks to: establish a "racism register" to track and condemn the use of hate speech against religion; build a Dutch slavery museum; abolish the black character Zwarte Piet ("Black Pete"); and ban the use of the Dutch word "Allochtoon" which it considers as derogatory towards ethnic minorities in the Netherlands.[12]
The party mainly attracts support from ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, especially from the Turkish and Moroccan population. Correspondingly the support for Denk is the strongest in cities and towns with a significant migrant population, especially in larger cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In these cities the support for the party is concentrated in majority-minority districts, such as Nieuw-West in Amsterdam or Kanaleneiland in Utrecht, gaining between 30 and 40% of the votes in those districts.[34]
The two leaders and founders of the party have been criticised for being "closely linked to the AK Party" of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and "do not criticize Erdogan and Turkish government policies". Some critics in the Dutch media have called the party the "long arm of Erdoğan" for its perceived support of the party line of the Turkish government and the ruling AK Party.[18][35][7][36] The party was the sole party in the Netherlands that did not call for the release of a Turkish-Dutch blogger who was arrested for a tweet about Erdoğan.[7] The party has also been heavily criticised for refusing to distance itself from the purges in Turkey since 2016.[18] However, as Denk's leader, Kuzu distanced himself from comments of Erdoğan in which the Turkish president called Dutch authorities "Nazi remnants and fascists",[37][38] labelling those comments "incorrect" and "very troublesome".[39]
The Diyanet, a Turkish governmental unit, has allowed Denk to promote itself in Diyanet-controlled Dutch mosques. There are 146 such mosques as of 2018.[36]
The party's program for the 2017 general election, in the context of the Armenian genocide, mourns both the Turkish and the Armenian sides, while calling for an "independent international investigation". Denk claims that there is no consensus regarding the scale and cause of the tragedy, and calls for "reason and unification". Within that framework, the party does not use the term genocide.[28][non-primary source needed] Denk was the sole party which voted against a bill recognising the Armenian Genocide.[8]
Targeting Turkish Dutch politicians
In March 2020, Denk was condemned by fellow members of the House of Representatives for releasing videos of MPs of Turkish descent from other parties, in which they are portrayed, for example, as "traitors" to the Turkish-Dutch community.[40]
^ abcdSpektorowski, Alberto; Elfersy, Daphna (2020), From Multiculturalism to Democratic Discrimination: The Challenge of Islam and the Re-emergence of Europe's Nationalism, University of Michigan Press, p. 204, ISBN9780472132164
^Otjesa, Simon; Krouwel, André (2018), "Why do newcomers vote for a newcomer? Support for an immigrant party", Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45 (7), Routledge: 1
^Van Baarle, Stephan (17 February 2018). "Integratie is een kunstmatige term" [Integration is an artificial term]. nrc.nl (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Elsje Jorritsma and Eppo König. Retrieved 5 April 2021.