Selahattin DemirtaÅŸ

Selahattin Demirtas (born 10 April 1973 and Palu, Turkey) is a Kurdish politician and chairman of Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi (BDP ).

Life and political offices

Selahattin Demirtas is the son of Tahir and Sadiye Demirtas from Elazig. His family belongs to the population of Zaza. He studied law in Ankara and subsequently worked as a lawyer. Later he was elected to the board of the human rights organization İnsan Haklari Derneği in Diyarbakir and was head of its branch. In addition to the İHD he is a member of Türkiye İnsan Haklari Vakfi ( TIHV ) and Amnesty International. Politically active, he was in on 11 December 2009 closed by prohibition Demokratik Toplum Partisi (DTP ). Selahattin Demirtas candidate for the Turkish parliamentary elections in 2007 to bypass as an independent candidate for the single applicable in Turkey 10% electoral threshold for parties. He was directly elected as a deputy for the province of Diyarbakir. After the banning of the DTP Selahattin Demirtas joined the Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi (BDP ) for. On 1 February 2010 he was elected at the party's congress in Ankara as the new party chairman. Because he ran again as an independent candidate for the parliamentary elections on 12 June 2011 Demirtas retired in April 2011 from his post as Chairman and left back for formal reasons the BDP. In the parliamentary elections, he was elected as an independent candidate back in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. In September 2011, he was elected party leader again at the Congress of the BDP in Ankara.

Private

Selahattin Demirtas is married and father of two daughters named Dildar and Delal.