Early Life
Selahattin Demirtas was born on April 10, 1973 in Elazig in Eastern Anatolia to a Zaza Kurdish family. He spent most of his early life in his hometown. He is skilled saz player, even performing with the string instrument at his wedding to Basak Demirtas in 2002. Mrs Demirtas is a teacher who has been campaigning for her husband’s freedom in the media. Demirtas graduated from Ankara University’s College of Law in 1998 and served as a freelance lawyer for several years. Known as “Selo” among his supporters, he is also a writer and singer who has dedicated songs to his campaigns.
Young activist and politician
In 2006, he became head of the Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association, launched to fight against human rights violations following 1980 military coup.
In 2007, the young politician joined the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and ran for election in the same year, becoming an independent MP, as the party could not pass the 10 percent threshold. The DTP was shut down in 2009 but its independent MPs moved to the newly-founded Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Demirtas became its co-chair.
He maintained his seat in parliament through a joint list, which included BDP and 18 different political groups. When the BDP was banned its members formed the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and elected Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag as co-chairs in 2014. Both leaders were jailed in November 2016 on terror-related charges.
Demirtas became a mediator talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2013, which resulted in a short-term peace process between the two. He visited PKK headquarters in the Qandil Mountains and took photos with the Kurdish guerrillas. These photos were later used by Turkish authorities who accused him of having ties with “terrorists.”
He has visited the Kurdistan Region twice, seeking the region’s support for the peace process. He was warmly welcomed by the region’s authorities, including former President Masoud Barzani and PM Nechirvan Barzani, who played key roles bringing the sides together, as the KRG had close relations with Turkish government.
He has been referred to in western media as the Kurdish Nelson Mandela for his perceived martyrdom and as the Kurdish Obama for his powerful oratory.
Demirtas ran in the 2015 presidential election, winning 10 percent of the vote. However, after the election success, the government began locking up HDP MPs and its supports on terror-related charges.
His campaigning for the 2018 presidential election has been limited to tweets through his lawyers, occasional interviews, and a couple of ten minute promos on the state-owned TRT news channel.
What awaits Demirtas?
If the HDP performs well in the election, the chances of Demirtas being released from prison greatly improve. However, he told Rudaw English in an interview through his lawyers he is not running in the election merely to win his own freedom but the freedom of his people.
The leading opposition candidates Muharrem Ince, Meral Aksener, and Temel Karamollaoglu have all called for Demirtas’ release. Ince has even visited him in jail, promising to release him if elected.
Ince has said his deputy will be a Kurd if elected. Could he mean Demirtas?
