Selahattin Demirtaş
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Selahattin Demirtaş MP |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Chairman of the Peoples' Democratic Party | |
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Assumed office 22 June 2014 Serving with Figen Yüksekdağ |
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| Preceded by |
Ertuğrul Kürkçü & Sebahat Tuncel |
| Leader of the Peace and Democracy Party | |
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In office 1 February 2010 – 22 April 2014 |
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| Preceded by |
Mustafa Ayzit Demir Çelik |
| Succeeded by |
Party abolished See Democratic Regions Party |
| Member of the Grand National Assembly | |
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Assumed office 22 July 2007 |
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| Constituency |
Diyarbakır (2007) Hakkari (2011) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 April 1973 Palu, Elazığ, Turkey |
| Political party |
Democratic Society Party (Before 2008) Peace and Democracy Party (2008–2014) Peoples' Democratic Party (2014–present) |
| Alma mater | Ankara University |
| Website | www |
Selahattin Demirtaş (
Turkish pronunciation ; born 10 April 1973) 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 third 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. He cites his experience at the funeral of politician Vedat Aydin as a political awakening:
“I became a different person. My life’s course changed … although I didn’t fully understand the reason behind the events, now I knew: we were Kurds, and since this wasn’t an identity I would toss away, this was also my problem.”
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.
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Wikipedia