Selahattin Demirtas is a Kurdish politician and former presidential candidate in Turkey. He formerly co-chaired the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM, previously known as the HDP). Turkey has kept him jailed since 2016, in defiance of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.
Before his imprisonment Mr Demirtas was among Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most vocal and effective critics. Erdogan fears that if released he would simply pick up where he left off. Mr Demirtas has done nothing to assuage those fears: "I will leave here with my head held high," he wrote from his cell in late 2025, "or remain here until the last day of my life."
Pollsters say most Kurds feel closer to political leaders like Demirtas than to the PKK. Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan's main coalition partner, has pushed for Demirtas's release as part of the Kurdish peace process, but Erdogan has been reluctant.
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