ISTANBUL: It’s not the most conventional way for a presidential candidate to address supporters. But Turkey’s leading Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas is not facing a usual set of circumstances as he campaigns for June 24 elections from jail. Demirtas on Wednesday issued his first, and possibly only, audio message of the campaign where he will challenge President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, delivered in a telephone call received by his wife
Basak.
The ex-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’
Democratic Party (HDP) has been jailed since November 2016 on charges of links to outlawed Kurdish militants and is now in a prison in Edirne.
The HDP produced a slick video of the message, which begins with Basak Demirtas welcoming family members to their home in Diyarbakir. Her mobile rings and it’s her husband. The phone is put on loudspeaker. “Hello my darling, how are you?” she says, and lets him make the around five minute campaign speech.
“Sadly,
Turkey has been transformed into a semi-open prison,” he declared. Demirtas described himself as a “political hostage”. But also said: “Demirtas is not the man who is in a cell in Edirne. It’s you. Have confidence in yourselves”.
Demirtas has had to contend with being all but ignored by state television, which broadcasts every moment of Erdogan’s speeches live. But he has sought to campaign as best he can, notably posting regular tweets sent via his lawyers.
Demirtas until his jailing was seen as the only Turkish politician with the rhetorical skills and charisma to match those of Erdogan.