Onurlu Yaşam Davası

by Selahattin Demirtaş

Bilinmelidir ki, bu dava ve yargılama adı altında yürütülen bu faaliyetlere karşı bizim eylemimiz, sözümüz ve savunmamız sadece günümüze yapılmış bir çağrı değil, esasında geleceğe yazılmış bir mektuptur. Kürt halkı mazlumdur, Türk halkı mazlumdur. Onları sömürenlerdir katil olanlar. Topraklarını işgal edenlerdir. Kültürüne, diline el koyanlardır katil olanlar, biz değiliz. Biz sadece halkımızın onurunu savunduk, haysiyetini savunduk, karnını doyurma hakkını savunduk, şu yeryüzünde özgürce yaşama hakkını savunduk, kendi topraklarında insan gibi yaşama hakkını savunduk. Kürt ve Kürdistan gerçeğini inkar, insanı inkardır. Herhangi bir insanın dilini, vatanını inkar, insanı inkardır, insanın onuruna saldırıdır. Kürt halkının kendine ait Kürt milleti olarak bir tarihi vardır, bunu inkar insanın onurunu inkardır. Bunu kabul ettiğimiz zaman biz kendimizi onursuz gibi hissederiz. Birbirimizin yüzüne bakamayız Kürtler olarak. Sizin de yüzünüze bakamam. Bu dava vesilesiyle bizi köleleştirmek isteyenlere biz, “Hayır, biz özgür insanlarız.” diyoruz.

608 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Selahattin Demirtaş is a Zaza Kurdish politician who is co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ. Demirtaş was the presidential candidate of the HDP in the 2014 election, coming in 3rd place with 9.77% of the vote.

Selahattin Demirtaş was born in a Zaza-speaking family in Elazığ in 1973 where he completed both his primary and secondary education.

Upon graduation from secondary school, he took the university entrance exam and started his college education in Dokuz Eylül University in the department of Maritime Commerce and Management where he would face political problems that would force him to leave school without finishing his degree. He returned to Diyarbakır and retook the university entrance exam, after which he enrolled at Ankara University Law Faculty. After college, Demirtaş worked as a freelance lawyer for a time before becoming a member of the executive committee of the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD). The IHD Chair at the time was Osman Baydemir who was elected as the mayor of Diyarbakır in the following local election and Demirtaş replaced him as the chair of the IHD Diyarbakır. During his term as chair, the association focused heavily on the increasing unsolved political murders in Turkey. Demirtaş is among the founding members of the Turkish Human Rights Association (TIHV) and the Diyarbakır post of Amnesty International.

Demirtaş started his political career as a member of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2007 at which time he stood as one of the ‘Thousand Hope Candidates’ for the DTP and several other democratic organizations in Turkey. He was elected to the 23rd Parliament and became the Parliamentary Chief Officer for the party at the age of 34.

The DTP was closed down by a Supreme Court order in 2009 and the DTP MPs moved to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The BDP held its first congress in 2010 and elected Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak as its new co-chairs. Demirtaş contested the 2011 elections as part of the joint ‘Labor, Democracy and Freedom’ list endorsed by the BDP and 18 different democratic political organizations, this time from Hakkari. He was re-elected to the 24th parliament.

Demirtaş was the co-chair of BDP during the period when the peace process and negotiations kick-started in Turkey. In 2014 Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were elected as the co-chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) – a new initiative originating from a three-year-old coalition of the BDP and various different political parties and organization under the auspices of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) - for the 2014 presidential elections of Turkey, being one of three candidates and hoping to attract left-wing voters. He came third with 9.77% of the vote.

Demirtaş was co-leader along with Figen Yüksekdağ during the June 2015 Turkish general election, the party's first campaign in a general election. The HDP came in fourth place with 13.12% of the vote and 80 out of 550 seats. Celebrating the victory, he stated: “From now on, the HDP is Turkey’s party. HDP is Turkey, Turkey is HDP.”

On November 4 2016, he was arrested along with other HDP MPs.