A scene from Selahattin Demirtaş's election campaign in 2014 has been deeply imprinted in the collective memory of many Kurds: a young boy runs parallel to Demirtaş's slowly moving bus, chanting "Selahattin President, this is my president". This scene has become a symbol of the hopes that young Kurds associated with him after decades of armed Kurdish conflict.
Surprising success
For many observers, the political novice Demirtaş was the big surprise in the country's recent history. According to polls, many voters found him smart, charming, resourceful, modest and funny, even if they did not vote for him. In the presidential elections in the summer of 2014, he won almost 10% of the vote, although the potential of Kurdish voters was estimated at no more than seven percent.
At just 40 years old, Demirtaş became a beacon of hope for the long-divided Turkish left. In the following parliamentary elections, he prevented the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from gaining the absolute majority it had held since it came to power. In 2016, Demirtaş was arrested on charges of membership in a terrorist organization (PKK) and inciting violence. Last year, he was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned his arrest, calling the trial in Turkey unfair and irregular, and has since demanded his release. Ankara has so far ignored the international court's rulings and delayed the entire process through appeals. Now, however, the Strasbourg court has finally rejected the Turkish government's appeal, giving Demirtaş's supporters hope that he could be released.
A cult figure in recent history
Demirtaş was born in 1973 in the eastern Anatolian province of Elazig. He belongs to the "Zaza" ethnic subgroup of Kurds and has a law degree. After completing his studies, he settled in the Kurdish metropolis of Diyarbakir and took on numerous cases of human rights violations. He participated in the founding of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation and the regional branch of “Amnesty International“ in Diyarbakir.
In 2007, he entered the Turkish parliament for the first time as a deputy from a pro-Kurdish political party. He managed to retain his seat in the next parliamentary elections and even became the chairman of the parliamentary group. At that time, the first peace process with the Kurds was underway. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) aimed not only to become the leading force in cities with a Kurdish majority, but also to be recognized by the Kurdish and pro-Kurdish groups scattered throughout the country.
To achieve this goal, Demirtaş also turned to the Turkish left and the Greens, with whom the HDP entered into an alliance. In the June 2015 parliamentary elections, the ruling AKP lost its long-standing absolute majority, while the HDP won more than 13 percent and 80 seats, making Demirtaş the main political opponent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Since no government had been formed within the established deadline, Turkish voters were called to vote again in November 2015. In these elections, the AKP managed to adjust the result in its favor. “But Erdogan had already targeted Demirtaş and decided to keep him in prison for as long as possible“, says Reha Ruhavioglu of the Diyarbakir Kurdish Studies Center.
Unchanged sympathies
Following Erdogan's termination of the peace process with the Kurds and the attempted coup in 2016, the government took tough measures against all its rivals. Demirtaş and the entire leadership of the pro-Kurdish party were arrested. Since then, Demirtaş has had no direct contact with his supporters, but the Turkish government has not managed to completely push him out of the public sphere - this is mainly due to the personal qualities of Demirtaş, who is charismatic, has exceptional emotional intelligence and excellent leadership qualities. In addition, he successfully enters into a dialogue with the people.
In a survey by the Kurdish Public Opinion Research Institute Rawest last year, most of the more than 1,400 Kurdish voters surveyed indicated Demirtaş as the leading political leader of the Kurds.
What role can Demirtaş play?
For a year now, there has been a new rapprochement between the Turkish government and the Kurds. On the instructions of its leader Abdullah Öcalan, the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced its dissolution in May and began to symbolically hand over its weapons. Öcalan set the tone for this process, led the negotiations and remains the most important factor in the Kurdish issue. In addition, his word also carries weight among the Syrian Kurds, Ruhavioğlu points out.
However, Demirtaş is the most important civilian political figure of the Kurds and is the best suited to shoulder the leading political role in the democratic process. In recent months, the politician Demirtaş has made several statements from prison, from which it became clear that he supports the latest peace process and is ready to take responsibility. The question of whether the Turkish president will allow him to do so, however, is currently preoccupying the opposition.
After all, Demirtaş was the politician who openly opposed Erdogan and prevented his party from gaining an absolute majority in parliament. That is why the president is known to prefer to negotiate with the 76-year-old Öcalan instead of the 52-year-old Demirtaş.
Author: Elmaz Topçu