For more than four years, Selahattin Demirtaş, the writer and former co-chair of Turkey’s People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who in 2014 and 2018 ran in the country’s presidential elections, has been held in pre-trial detention on multiple terror-related charges. In December last year, the European Court of Human Rights found his detention to be unlawful and ordered his release. On 6 May, he will face his next hearing.
Many would remember Demirtaş from 2014, when he ran for the presidency. His slogan: “Imagine a president who does not practice discrimination, who works instead for unity and peace.” No one, including himself, could imagine him winning.
The contest was heavily tilted in favour of the then-prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The main opposition parties joined forces to back a compromise candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu. This left little room for Demirtaş, a Kurd who seemed blind to the nation’s most fiercely guarded red line: daring to speak not just for his own people but for all of Turkey’s beleaguered minorities.
