Demirtas looks beyond the 'Kurdish vote'
In seeking to unite the underrepresented on Turkey's left, Selahattin Demirtas, presidential candidate of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, is leading a grassroots movement similar to that of Islamists in the 1990s.
ANKARA, Turkey — On June 30 in the conference room of a small hotel in Ankara's Kucukesat district, the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP) officially nominated Selahattin Demirtas as its presidential candidate for elections scheduled for Aug. 10.
An elderly woman from the audience who introduced herself as Ayse Sari said she and her husband had traveled from the southeastern city of Mardin because they believe Demirtas to be a pious Muslim. She told Al-Monitor, “We had voted for the AKP [Justice and Development Party] for the last couple of elections, but then Demirtas and his colleagues came to our town and spoke with us. In particular, the women were from our own mindset. They listened to us. Now I will vote for Demirtas for president.”
In his speech before the small, yet diverse, audience, Demirtas emphasized not only how much he cares about women voters, but also how the HDP is the party of women, and how in the presidential race he feels incomplete without his female co-chair beside him. The HDP and its sister organization, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), had decided that each seat they sought in municipal races would involve a co-chair arrangement — each position contested jointly by one man and one woman. Such an arrangement is not, however, possible for the presidential race.
More than half those in attendance were women, a rare sight in Turkey's political scene. The women, young and old, with and without headscarves, clapped enthusiastically for Demirtas. As Sari commented with passion, “This is beyond the presidential race.”
