Selahattin Demirtaş
Turkish politician of Kurdish origin.
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| March 2025 | Turkey begins discussions about the potential release of Selahattin Demirtaş, with conciliatory gestures from President Erdoğan and his allies suggesting a possible shift in approach towards Kurdish issues. |
| 2023 | Contributed a short story titled 'My Handsome One' to the anthology 'Kurdistan +100: Stories from a Future State', which featured thirteen contemporary Kurdish writers. |
| 2023 | After extending his mandate in the elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan explicitly stated that releasing Demirtaş would not be possible under his governance. |
| May 2023 | Announces his departure from politics after the May elections. |
| 2022 | Received the Political Courage Award from the Institute François Mitterrand. HDP representative Hişyar Özsoy attended the award ceremony in Demirtaş's absence. |
| November 2022 | Briefly transported to Diyarbakir to visit his father in hospital, after which he was immediately returned to Edirne prison. |
| March 22 2021 | Demirtaş was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The conviction was based on remarks he made about Erdoğan's attempts to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Paris summit, specifically commenting that Erdoğan had 'fluttered from corridor to corridor' trying to meet Putin. |
| March 17 2021 | State prosecutor Bekir Şahin demanded a five-year political ban for Selahattin Demirtaş and 686 other HDP politicians, along with a proposed closure of the HDP party, alleging organizational cooperation with the PKK. |
| 2020 | Published the book 'Leylan', during which he expressed a preference for a potential career in literature over politics. |
| December 2020 | European Court of Human Rights rules his detention has a political purpose. |
| December 22 2020 | The ECHR condemned Turkey and again called for the release of Selahattin Demirtaş, deeming his detention politically motivated after the lifting of his parliamentary immunity. |
| 2019 | Defended his 2012 statement in court, explaining his critique of police response to Öcalan poster displays and reiterating his opposition to erecting Öcalan statues. |
| November 2019 | Awarded the Political Courage Award by the Progressive Alliance. Due to his imprisonment, his wife Başak Demirtaş attended the award ceremony on his behalf. |
| 2018 | Demirtaş ran for president again, securing 4,205,794 votes, which constituted 8.40% of the total votes, though this time without a specific party affiliation. |
| December 31 2018 | Demirtaş's lawyers appealed his sentence at the Constitutional Court. |
| December 4 2018 | An appeal court upheld the 4 years and 8 months sentence Demirtaş received on 7 September 2018. |
| November 30 2018 | A Turkish court ruled that Demirtaş would remain detained, disregarding the ECHR's ruling for his release. |
| November 20 2018 | The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Demirtaş should be released from preliminary detention and ordered Turkey to pay him 25,000 Euros. |
| September 7 2018 | Demirtaş was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months for a speech he made at a Newroz celebration on 20 March 2013. |
| May 4 2018 | Officially announced as the presidential candidate for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), leading a five-party 'Kurdish alliance' in the general election. He received 8.4% of the votes. |
| January 18 2017 | Turkish prosecutors announced they were seeking a 142-year prison sentence for Demirtaş, with over a hundred charges brought against him. |
| November 4 2016 | Selahattin Demirtaş is detained in the F-Type prison in Edirne, a border town far from his family in Diyarbakır, marking the beginning of his long-term imprisonment. |
| November 4 2016 | Demirtaş was arrested along with Figen Yüksekdağ and other HDP MPs, charged with spreading propaganda for militants fighting the Turkish state. Demirtaş denied any affiliation with the PKK. |
| November 4 2016 | Imprisoned, marking the beginning of his detention. |
| October 6 2016 | Demirtaş made a public statement about protests related to the Turkish Government's approach to the Islamic State (IS) attack on Kobane, which later became a key element in his subsequent arrest. |
| July 25 2016 | President Erdogan met with major opposition leaders, deliberately excluding Demirtaş and the HDP leadership. |
| July 16 2016 | Demirtaş publicly stated his opposition to the Turkish coup d'état attempt, asserting that the coup demonstrated the lack of democracy in Turkey. |
| May 2016 | Turkish parliament revoked parliamentary immunity for several HDP politicians, including Demirtaş and other HDP leadership members. |
| 2015 | Wrote the book 'Devran' while in prison. |
| 2015 | Wrote the book 'Seher' containing short stories while in detention, which reportedly sold over 200,000 copies in its Turkish edition. |
| November 2015 | Leads HDP to 10.7% in snap elections, again finishing fourth. |
| November 22 2015 | Survived an assassination attempt due to his political activities, highlighting the significant risks associated with his political work and personal safety. |
| September 2015 | HDP parliamentarians led by Demirtaş attempted to march into Cizre during a Turkish government-imposed curfew but were initially prevented from entering by authorities citing security concerns. |
| September 12 2015 | Demirtaş was finally allowed to enter Cizre after the city-wide curfew was lifted on September 12th. |
| August 2015 | Early general elections were announced for November, following tensions with PKK and the previous June elections. |
| July 2015 | Selahattin Demirtaş attributes the collapse of the peace process between AKP and PKK to AKP's response to its electoral defeat. He observed increased violence and called for higher political autonomy in South-East Turkey while opposing violence from both parties. |
| June 2015 | Leads HDP to 13.1% in parliamentary elections, finishing fourth. |
| 2014 | Selahattin Demirtaş ran for election, receiving 2,611,127 votes, representing 6.29% of the total votes, running as a candidate for the Peace and Democracy Party and later the Peoples' Democratic Party. |
| 2014 | Selahattin Demirtaş ran for president as the candidate of the Peoples' Democratic Party, receiving 3,958,048 votes, which represented 9.76% of the total votes. |
| 2014 | In the Municipal elections, Gültan Kisanak was elected as the Mayor of Diyarbakir, and Februnye Akyol was elected as Co-Mayor of Mardin, reflecting Demirtaş's commitment to promoting women in leadership positions. |
| 2014 | Runs as presidential candidate for HDP, finishing third in the election. |
| 2014 | Becomes co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) alongside Figen Yüksekdağ. |
| 2013 | Demirtaş participated in meetings with Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali island as part of the peace negotiations, representing BDP politicians in critical diplomatic discussions. |
| 2013 | Selahattin Demirtaş served as co-chair of BDP during the initiation of peace process and negotiations in Turkey, playing a key role in diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts. |
| October 2013 | Selahattin Demirtaş announced plans to field a female candidate for the Mayor of Diyarbakır, emphasizing gender equality and women's quota in the party program for the upcoming municipal elections. |
| November 2012 | At a rally in Kızıltepe, Mardin, criticized Turkish police intervention over marchers carrying Abdullah Öcalan's posters, arguing for the right to display such posters in Kurdistan. |
| 2011 | Contested elections as part of the 'Labor, Democracy and Freedom' list for Hakkari and was re-elected to parliament as an independent. |
| 2010 | Elected as co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) alongside Gültan Kışanak at the party's first congress. |
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