DIAYRBAKIR, Turkey – Prominent in the list of candidates, announced by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) for municipal elections next March, are Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir and the party’s own former co-leader Ahmet Turk, as well as 32 female hopefuls.
As political parties in Turkey gear for the polls, BDP is going full strength by nominating some of its most veteran leaders. Turk has been nominated for the city of Mardin.
According to a Rudaw correspondent in Diyarbakir, the BDP is working with a new system, nominating a female candidate for every male hopeful. There are 32 female candidates running across the country.
In a speech announcing the list of candidates, BDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said that his party offers an alternative to all other political and religious groups in Turkey.
“Against the clerical army, against the army of Mustafa Kemal and against the thieves of (Turkish premier) Erdogan, we will be there,” he vowed.
When the BDP ran in the 2009 municipal elections for the first time, it managed victories in 99 small-town and city municipalities nationwide.
Born in Diyarbakir in 1971 and a lawyer by profession, Baydemir is one of the most popular Kurdish politicians and successful mayors in Turkey.
He has managed to strike a balance between Ankara, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the BDP.
Baydemir also maintains strong relations with the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq and acted as mediator between Syrian Kurdish groups who gathered and reconciled in Erbil last week.
The BDP, which won 36 seats in the Turkish parliament in 2011, has to fight the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), not only in parliament, but also in the Kurdish areas.
The AKP - a moderate Islamist party - has a considerable following among the more traditionally religious Kurds.
But people like Baydemir and Turk also enjoy strong and loyal followings in the Kurdish cities.
Baydemir has won many pro-Kurdish concessions and cultural rights from Ankara for his province. In the past four years, he has fought for Kurdish road and public signs, Kurdish media rights and a free expression of Kurdish identity.
