ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP party in Turkey, has announced he will not run for re-election to the leadership position. “I would like it to be known in advance that I will not stand as a candidate for co-chair” at HDP’s party congress scheduled for February 11, Demirtas confirmed in a statement written from jail and published by his party. He said he made the decision so that HDP can “meet the new period of political struggle more powerfully.” Turkey’s political parties are positioning themselves for elections to be held in 2019. The country will hold local elections in March that year and presidential and parliamentary elections in November. This will be the first time people go to the polls since adopting constitutional amendments that strengthened the presidency in a referendum in April 2017. Demirtas, 44, is facing the possibility of a long prison term on terror charges. The charismatic politician was dubbed Turkey’s Barack Obama because of his impassioned oratory. The child of a poor family, he appealed to the working classes, young, women, and minority groups like the Kurds, bringing HDP past the electoral threshold as the third largest party in the parliament in the November 2015 elections. Demirtas himself garnered 9.76 percent of the vote in presidential elections in 2014. HDP has stood as a strong opposition to the ruling AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We did not practice politics for personal gain, to capture seats of power, or for the benefit of our family or close circle. Each one of us is a member of the oppressed classes in Turkey, and it was alongside our oppressed and impoverished people that we paid many a price to bring our party to the powerful position it holds today,” Demirtas stated in his message on Thursday. Demirtas, then co-chair Figen Yuksekdag and 10 other HDP MPs were detained in a round-up on November 4, 2016, as part of an investigation of supporting "terrorism" and Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). “Despite unfounded, unlawful and immoral accusations and attacks of dirty propaganda carried out from sources around the ruling party, we are neither separatists, nor terrorists,” Demirtas stated. The prosecutor in Demirtas' trial is seeking up to 142 years imprisonment on 31 terror-related charges. His trial began on December 12, 2017, but he did not appear in court himself. He refused to appear by video-link after authorities made the decision to not bring him to court in person, citing security concerns. He is being held in high security Edirne prison. The indictment against Demirtas alleges that he is a leading member of the PKK and accuses him of inciting people to violence. He denies the charges. A court in Ankara on Tuesday convicted the Kurdish politician of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a 2016 speech. He was fined 15,000 Turkish Liras (about $3,980). In his message on Thursday, Demirtas stated, “We prefer to be held captive on behalf of our people rather than stealing from our people, or betraying and persecuting our people.” He promised to remain a “servant of the democracy struggle,” doing all he can for HDP. He also urged people to join the party, saying, “You do not need money, power or a tribe to practice politics in our party. To possess courage and a love for the people in your heart is sufficient.” According to the rules of the party, one of the co-leaders has to be male and/or Kurdish and the other to be female and/or Turkish. HDP chose Serpil Kemalbay as its new co-leader in place of Yuksekdag whose party membership was revoked by the country's supreme court in 2017. In May 2016, the Turkish parliament voted to lift parliamentary immunity from a select group of MPs, including many HDP members. According to HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir, around 10,000 HDP supporters including mayors and city officials associated with the party have been arrested following the loss of immunity and the failed coup of last summer. Some of the detainees have been subsequently released.
