Selahattin Demirtaş

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Selahattin Demirtaş
Selahattin Demirtaş 2015-12-18 (cropped).jpg
Chairman of the Peoples' Democratic Party
In office
22 June 2014 – 11 February 2018
Serving with Serpil Kemalbay (formerly Figen Yüksekdağ)
Preceded byErtuğrul Kürkçü
Succeeded bySezai Temelli
Co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party
In office
1 February 2010 – 22 April 2014
Serving with Gültan Kışanak
Preceded by
Succeeded byParty abolished
See Democratic Regions Party
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office
22 July 2007 – 7 July 2018
ConstituencyDiyarbakır (2007)
Hakkari (2011)
Personal details
Born (1973-04-10) 10 April 1973 (age 48)
Palu, Elazığ, Turkey
Political partyDemocratic Society Party
(Before 2008)
Peace and Democracy Party
(2008–2014)
Peoples' Democratic Party
(2014–present)
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2002)​
Children2
RelativesNurettin Demirtaş (brother)
Alma materAnkara University
Websitewww.hdp.org.tr

Selahattin Demirtaş (About this soundTurkish pronunciation (help·info); born 10 April 1973) is a Turkish politician and author of Kurdish descent,[1] member of the parliament of Turkey since 2007. He was co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. He has been imprisoned since November 2016.

Demirtaş was the presidential candidate of the HDP in the 2014 presidential election, coming in third place with 9.77% of the vote. The HDP executive board also fielded Demirtaş as their candidate for the 2018 presidential election. Running his campaign from prison,[2] he came in third with 8.40% of the vote.

Early life and education[]

Selahattin Demirtaş was born in Palu in 1973, where he completed both his primary and secondary education. He cites his experience at the funeral of politician Vedat Aydın as a political awakening:

I became a different person. My life's course changed … although I didn't fully understand the reason behind the events, now I knew: we were Kurds, and since this wasn't an identity I would toss away, this was also my problem."[1]

Upon graduation from secondary school, he took the university entrance exam and from 1991 onwards he studied Maritime Commerce and Management at the Dokuz Eylül University,[3] where he would face political problems that would force him to leave school without finishing his degree. He returned to Diyarbakır and retook the university entrance exam in 1993, after which he enrolled at the Ankara University Law Faculty.[3]

Professional career[]

After his graduation, Demirtaş worked as a freelance lawyer for a while. In 2000 he became a member of the executive committee at the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD).[3] The IHD Chair at the time was Osman Baydemir who was elected as the mayor of Diyarbakır at the following local election. Demirtaş replaced him as the chair of the Diyarbakır IHD in 2004.[3] During his term as chair, the association focused heavily on the increasing unsolved political murders in Turkey.

Political career[]

See also: 2014 Turkish presidential election and Selahattin Demirtaş presidential campaign, 2018
Demirtaş meeting with the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz in 2013
Selahattin Demirtaş's election campaign logo
Votes obtained by Demirtaş throughout the 81 Provinces of Turkey in the 2014 presidential election

From international observers often dubbed as a Kurdish Obama[4][5] Demirtaş started his political career as a member of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2007 at which time he stood as one of the 'Thousand Hope Candidates' for the DTP and several other democratic organizations in Turkey. He was elected to the 23rd Parliament and became the Parliamentary Chief Officer for the party at the age of 34.

The DTP was closed down by a Supreme Court order in 2009 for the parties alleged connections to the PKK,[6] and the DTP MPs moved to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).[7] The BDP held its first congress in 2010 and elected Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak as its new co-chairs. Demirtaş contested the 2011 elections as part of the joint 'Labor, Democracy and Freedom' list endorsed by the BDP and 18 different democratic political organizations, this time for Hakkari. He was re-elected to parliament as an independent.[8]

At a rally in the Kızıltepe district of Mardin in November 2012, Demirtaş criticized the Turkish police for intervening after marchers carried posters of Abdullah Öcalan, saying "I call on you, those who are not bothered about the Kurds’ killer Evren’s statue being erected [or by] schools named after Evren. If they [Kurds] cannot hang Öcalan’s poster in Kurdistan, then where would they hang it? We will go further and erect his statue."[9][10] In 2019, Demirtaş defended his statement in court, arguing that he was responding to how posters were met with panzers and truncheons, and that he is opposed to erecting statues of Öcalan.[11][12]

Demirtaş was the co-chair of BDP during the period when the peace process and negotiations kick-started in Turkey. In 2014 Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were elected as the co-chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) – a new initiative originating from a three-year-old coalition of the BDP and various different political parties and organization under the auspices of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) - for the 2014 presidential elections of Turkey, being one of three candidates and hoping to attract left-wing voters.[13] He came third with 9.77% of the vote.

Demirtaş was co-leader along with Figen Yüksekdağ during the June 2015 Turkish general election, the party's first campaign in a general election. The HDP came in fourth place with 13.12% of the vote and 80 out of 550 seats. Celebrating the victory, he stated: "From now on, the HDP is Turkey's party. HDP is Turkey, Turkey is HDP."[14] Demirtaş was officially announced as the candidate of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) on May 4, 2018 for the presidential election, after members of the party had hinted at his candidacy weeks in advance.[15] Party leader Pervin Buldan declared that Demirtaş, the jailed former co-chair of the HDP, would be leading a five-party "Kurdish alliance" into the general election.[16] He received 8.4% of the votes.[17]

Legal prosecution and detention[]

After the Turkish parliament revoked the parliamentary immunity for several HDP politicians including the HDP leadership in May 2016, on 4 November 2016, Demirtaş was arrested along with Figen Yüksekdağ and other HDP MPs, accused of spreading propaganda for militants fighting the Turkish state.[18] Demirtaş stated he is not a "manager, member, spokesperson, or sympathizer" of the armed PKK group.[19]

Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, November 2015 Turkish general election

The criminal indictment against Demirtaş alleged that he gave instructions to pro-PKK groups and provoked them during the 6–8 October Kobanî protests in 2014, which resulted in the death of 53 people. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed him for provoking protests, and said that all Kurdish people are the citizens of Republic of Turkey, and no one can attempt to build a state for them.[20] Demirtaş's repeatedly stated opposition to both PKK and TSK violences,[21] calling killed Turkish soldiers "the children of this country, our children", and declaring "No one has anything to win from a civil war in Turkey. Just look at Syria and Iraq.”[21]

On 18 January 2017, Turkish prosecutors announced they were seeking a 142-year prison sentence for Demirtaş[22] and according to the New York Times, more than hundred charges have been brought against Demirtaş.[23]

On the 7 September 2018 he was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months for a speech he had made at a Newroz celebration on the 20 March 2013.[24]

On 20 November 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Demirtaş should be released from preliminary detention,[25] and ordered Turkey to pay him 25'000 Euros.[26] On 30 November 2018 a court in Turkey ruled he shall remain detained despite the ECHR ruling to release him. According to the verdict by the Turkish court, the ruling of the ECHR was not definitive and therefore not binding.[27] The sentence he received the 7 September 2018 was upheld on 4 December 2018 by an appeal court.[28] On the 31 December 2018 the lawyers of Demirtaş appealed the sentence at the Constitutional Court.[24] On the 17 March 2021, the state prosecutor Bekir Şahin demanded for him and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics together with a closure of the HDP due to alleged organizational cooperation with the PKK.[29] A few days later on the 22 March 2021, Demirtas was sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment for having insulted the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by mentioning he had "fluttered from corridor to corridor" trying to get a hold of Vladimir Putin during an international conference in Paris.[30]

Detention conditions[]

Since 4 November 2016 he is detained in the prison in the F-Type prison Edirne,[24] a border town near Greece and Bulgaria, far away from Diyarbakır in South-Eastern Turkey, where his family lives at. His wife visits him once a week.[31] The ECtHR called for releasing Demirtaş and stated that his arrest in 2016 violated his freedom of speech and the right of joining to the elections.[32] According to HDP speaker Saruhan Oluç, he is not allowed to receive visits by parliamentarians of the HDP.[33]

Personal life[]

Demirtaş is married to Başak Demirtaş and is the father of two girls, Delal and Dılda.[34] His parents are Tahir and Sadyie Demirtaş[35] and he has six siblings.[1]

Demirtaş has faced threats due to his political activity and on November 22, 2015 he survived an assassination attempt.[36]

Publications[]

In detention, he wrote a book titled Seher containing short stories.[37] The Turkish edition of Seher has reportedly sold more than 200,000 copies.[38] He has also wrote the book Devran in prison.[39] In 2020 the book Leylan was published and Demirtaş acknowledged he would prefer a career in literature than the one in politics.[39]

Award[]

In November 2019, the Progressive Alliance awarded him their Political Courage Award. His wife Başak Demirtaş attended the award ceremony as he was still imprisoned at the time.[40]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bellaigue, Christopher de (2015-10-29). "The battle for Turkey: can Selahattin Demirtas pull the country back from the brink of civil war? | Christopher de Bellaigue". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  2. ^ "Turkey's top Kurdish politician to run for president from behind bars". 25 April 2018.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Who's who in Politics in Turkey" (PDF). Heinrich Böll Stiftung. pp. 232–235. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  4. ^ Kenner, David. "Turkey's 'Kurdish Obama' Is Now in Jail". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  5. ^ "Jailed 'Kurdish Obama' says he won't run for Turkish elections". France 24. 2018-01-10. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  6. ^ "Turkish court bans pro-Kurd party". 2009-12-11. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  7. ^ Gunes, Cengiz (2013-01-11). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-136-58798-6.
  8. ^ "HAKKARİ 2011 GENEL SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  9. ^ "Demirtaş: Öcalan'ın heykelini dikeceğiz". www.ntv.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  10. ^ "BDP wants Öcalan statue - Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  11. ^ "Demirtaş'tan mahkemede 'Öcalan'ın heykelini dikeceğiz' savunması". www.aydinlik.com.tr. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  12. ^ "Demirtaş, 'Başkan Apo'nun heykelini dikeceğiz' sözüne açıklık getirdi". www.rudaw.net (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  13. ^ "Kurdish problem-focused HDP announces co-chair Demirtaş as presidential candidate". 30 June 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  14. ^ "Selahattin Demirtaş, the Dimming Star of Turkish Politics". Fanack.com. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  15. ^ Lıcalı, Mahmut (April 29, 2020). "Demirtaş bugün hâkim karşısında: Ceza çıksa da çıkmasa da aday". www.cumhuriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-11-28.
  16. ^ "HDP nominates imprisoned former leader Demirtaş for presidency". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  17. ^ "Seçim Sonuçları: Haziran 2018 Cumhurbaşkanlığı ve Genel Seçim Sonuçları". Hürriyet. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
  18. ^ "Turkey HDP: Blast after pro-Kurdish leaders Demirtas and Yuksekdag detained - BBC News". BBC. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  19. ^ "HDP's Demirtaş: I'm not a manager, member, spokesperson, or". Birgun.net. 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  20. ^ "Erdoğan: '53 kardeşimin kanı Demirtaş'ın eline bulanmıştır'". Internet Haber. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b "HDP co-chair Demirtaş calls on PKK to halt violence 'without ifs or buts' - Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  22. ^ van Wilgenburg, Wladimir (18 January 2017). "Turkish prosecutor demands 142 years imprisonment for Kurdish leader Demirtaş, EU rapporteur outraged". ARA News. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  23. ^ Gall, Carlotta (2018-07-31), "Erdogan's Most Charismatic Rival in Turkey Challenges Him, From Jail", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved 2019-01-10
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Prison Sentence of Selahattin Demirtaş Taken to Constitutional Court". Bianet. 2 January 2019.
  25. ^ "ECHR: Demirtas should be released, his rights were violated". ANF News. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  26. ^ "itemid":%5b"001-187961"%5d} "CASE OF SELAHATTİN DEMİRTAŞ v. TURKEY (No. 2)". European Court of Human Rights. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  27. ^ Eckerd, Patrick. "Turkish court rules Kurdish opposition will remain leader imprisoned". www.jurist.org. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  28. ^ http://bianet.org/english/law/203201-prison-sentences-of-demirtas-and-onder-upheld
  29. ^ "Turkish prosecutor seeks political ban on 687 pro-Kurdish politicians". www.duvarenglish.com (in Turkish). 2021-03-18. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  30. ^ Reuters Staff (2021-03-22). "Turkish court sentences Demirtas to jail for insulting president: lawyer". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  31. ^ "Why Kurdish voters could hold the key to Turkey's elections". The Independent. 2018-06-22. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
  32. ^ Daventry, Michael (22 December 2020). "Human rights court orders Turkey to release Kurdish leader Demirtaş". euronews. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  33. ^ "Türkische Linke: "Wir machen weiter"". www.woz.ch (in German). 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  34. ^ Kurdistan24. "Erdogan's presidential rivals, Demirtas, Ince meet in Turkish prison". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  35. ^ "First Prison Photo of HDP Co-Chair Demirtaş Released". Bianet. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  36. ^ "HDP says co-leader escaped an assassination attempt". 23 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  37. ^ "Jailed Kurdish leader becomes literary star behind bars". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  38. ^ Jo Glanville (23 June 2018). "Inside stories: Turkey's grim tradition of publishing behind bars". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  39. ^ Jump up to: a b "Devran: Selahattin Demirtaş and stubborn hope". Ahval. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  40. ^ "Jailed Kurdish leader Demirtaş receives international award for political courage". Ahval. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
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