Selahattin Demirtas: Short bio of presidential candidate in Turkey elections

ANKARA

Selahattin Demirtaş was born on April 10, 1973 in Diyarbakır.

He received his primary and secondary education in Elazığ and graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Law.

Demirtaş worked as a freelance lawyer after graduated. He then became a member, and thereafter Diyarbakır chair, of the executive committee of the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD). He is one of the founders of the Human Rights Foundation and Amnesty International’s Turkey branch.

He was elected as the deputy of Diyarbakır in the 23rd and Hakkari in the 24th parliament. He was the deputy chairman in the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and in 2010, he became the co-chairman of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). In the Assembly of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) hold in 2014, he has become the co-chairman of HDP.

Demirtaş is married with two children.