Demirtaş discourages petitions demanding his HDP chairmanship

ISTANBUL

Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned co-leader of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), announced on his Twitter account through his lawyers that he did not find various petitions demanding for him to stand as a nominee once again for the party leadership as “right.”

“I would like to express my thanks to all of our party supporters offering their suggestion about the issue of co-chairmanship. But, it is not right to undertake a petition, etc. about my nomination because if I wanted to stand as a nominee, there is neither an official or factual obstacle in front of this,” Demirtaş said on his Twitter account on Jan. 14.

Demirtaş’s statement came after he announced he would not stand as a nominee for the party’s leadership for the upcoming congress to be held on Feb. 13.

Demirtaş sent a letter from the Edirne Prison to the HDP headquarters via his lawyers, stating he would not run for party leadership again.

Following the HDP co-chair’s announcement, many supporters of the party initiated various petitions, demanding for Demirtaş to run for co-chairmanship again.

The HDP co-chair, however, has announced on his Twitter account that although he “respected this solidarity” shown by the party supporters, such petitions “damaged” the preparatory works of the party’s congress.

“I would like to state that I expect suggestions from you regarding the party’s policies along with powerful, alternative co-chair suggestions,” Demirtaş has said.

Demirtaş was arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 along with 10 other HDP members as part of an investigation on terrorist allegations.

The first hearing of the case was held after 13 months of pre-trial detention in December 2017, with prosecutors demanding up to 142 years in jail over “leadership of a terrorist organization,” “membership of a terrorist organization” and “inciting people to hatred and animosity.”