The name of Selahattin Demirtas, the Kurdish leader and former head of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, topped social networking sites during the past hours.
Selahattin Demirtas, who has been in Edirne prison for nearly 7 years, cast his vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey, on Sunday.
Demirtas wrote on his Twitter account: “I voted, so what about you?” He attached pictures of him during the previous elections.
Who is Demirtas?
He became involved in political life after he was affected by the assassination of the head of the Kurdish People’s Action Party, Widad Aydin, whose assassination was recorded against an unknown person in 1991.
In 2007, he joined the Kurdish left-wing Democratic Society Party, then became a deputy for the party in Parliament.
In 2009, he was accused by the authorities and the Supreme Constitutional Court of association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984.
He became a deputy for the left-wing Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, which was banned by the court for the same reason.
Then he co-founded the Peoples’ Democratic Party in 2012 and co-chaired the party with the left-wing Turkish politician Figen Yuksekdağ. The party says that it is the umbrella that protects the rights of all components in Turkey, not just the Kurds.
He was charged with several charges, including leading and promoting a “terrorist organization”.
The authorities say that the HDP, the third largest party in parliament, is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the United States and European countries consider a terrorist organization, while the party denies having any links with this party.
