Captured but not silenced: the pro-Kurdish politician mobilizes his supporters against Erdogan from prison.
(Photo: AP)
Istanbul Selahattin Demirtas has not appeared in public for more than six years. Even before the presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, the Turkish Kurdish politician cannot hold rallies to address his voters because he is being held in the high-security prison in Edirne on the Bulgarian border.
And yet Demirtas, 50, could become a kingmaker on Sunday. From his cell, he called on the Kurds to vote for opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, despite their stomach ache, in order to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the polls, Demirtas’ appeals could be decisive for the election.
Demirtas has been behind bars since autumn 2016. The judiciary accuses him of provoking anti-government protests in 2014 that killed more than 50 people. Erdogan calls him a “terrorist”. According to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the real reason for Demirtas’ imprisonment is that the Erdogan government wants to silence the Kurdish politician.
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