Başak Demirtaş, wife of imprisoned Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş, announced Wednesday (February 7) that she will not stand as a candidate in İstanbul’s upcoming mayoral election on March 31. Demirtaş’s potential candidacy for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, rumored since December, had been seen as a major threat to the reelection chances of incumbent opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who will be seeking a second term.
Başak Demirtaş’s husband Selahattin has been imprisoned in Edirne since 2016 on charges related to his role in the 2014 Kobani protests and comments made during a Nevruz celebration in 2013. Despite his imprisonment, Selahattin Demirtaş stood as a candidate in Turkey’s 2018 presidential elections, and has remained an influential voice in Turkish politics. While the European Court of Human Rights has issued numerous calls for the Kurdish leader’s release, Selahattin Demirtaş remains behind bars.
Rumors of Başak Demirtaş’s possible candidacy first began in December when she expressed an openness to run as a mayoral candidate in Turkey’s largest city, although an offer from the DEM Party had not yet officially been put forward. In early January, the party began formally planning for March’s contest, planning to run candidates in at least 50 cities across the country while leaving the door open to running joint candidates in Turkey’s major cities with other parties should an agreement be reached.
On January 21, Başak Demirtaş; gave the following statement regarding her potential candidacy:
“I have not yet received a proposal from the DEM Party, for the Istanbul mayoral candidacy. However, if the people want it and our party deems it appropriate, and we believe that my candidacy could lead to a stronger democracy and social peace in Turkey, then we will consider it. In this case, we would enter the race not with the goal of making another candidate win or lose, but in order to win ourselves.”
Another DEM Party meeting took place on January 25-26 in order to select mayoral candidates for Turkey’s largest cities, including Istanbul. The meeting reportedly involved discussions over whether Başak Demirtaş should run. In a statement following the meeting, a DEM Party spokesperson articulated that Demirtaş had still not been formally offered the candidacy. On February 3, with Demirtaş’s candidacy still the subject of speculation, the party announced that they would be running their own candidate in İstanbul in lieu of an electoral alliance with another major party, leading some to suspect that Demirtaş’s candidacy announcement was imminent. Much discussion following DEM’s February 3 announcement focused on the potential of a Demirtaş candidacy to hinder Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s reelection efforts, as the two draw from overlapping slices of the electorate. Demirtaş’s imprisoned husband Selahattin was reported regularly visited in prison by DEM Party officials and was actively involved in the choice of whether his wife should run.
On Tuesday, Demirtaş announced that she would not be running, while the DEM Party announced that they would still be running an as-yet-unannounced candidate.
İmamoğlu’s electoral prospects
Başak Demirtaş’s Tuesday announcement was seen by and large as a boost to incumbent Mayor İmamoğlu’s reelection chances. İmamoğlu was driven to a surprise victory in 2019 as a joint candidate with significant support from many of the city’s Kurdish residents, delivering President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) their largest electoral defeat in nearly 20 years in power.
Because of the potential of Demirtaş’s candidacy to draw votes from İmamoğlu, rumors had swirled in recent days alleging the AKP had come to Demirtaş with an offer to release her husband or reappoint several deposed Kurdish mayors in eastern cities in their bid to retake Turkey’s largest metropolis. Such rumors remain entirely unconfirmed.
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The AKP’s mayoral candidate Murat Kurum, former Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, will seek to take down İmamoğlu in the March 31 contest. Polls thus far have shown İmamoğlu with a consistent albeit tight lead over his main challenger.
