Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party announced its co-mayoral candidates for Ankara as Gültan Kışanak, a prominent female Kurdish politician currently detained in Kandıra Prison, and Öztürk Türkdoğan, former co-chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD).
Kışanak is celebrated as a pivotal figure in both Kurdish politics and the wider Turkish opposition, known for her resilience as a former detainee of the notorious 1980 military coup, her socialist principles, and her influential role in championing women’s rights in politics.
Kışanak, who has been imprisoned for seven and a half years, conveyed a message through her lawyers, accepting the nomination as a duty to her people and expressing her commitment to addressing core issues such as the Kurdish question and women’s rights directly from the capital. She emphasised the importance of initiating discussions in Ankara to forge bridges of societal peace across Turkey.
Kışanak’s candidacy comes despite her prolonged detention, which has exceeded the maximum period stipulated by Turkish law. Arrested in October 2016, two years after being elected as the co-mayor of Diyarbakir (Amed) Metropolitan Municipality from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Kışanak faces charges of “being a member of a terrorist organisation” and “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”.
Her legal team has appealed for her release, citing the expiration of the maximum detention period, but the court has denied these requests, maintaining her imprisonment beyond the seven-year limit.
In her message, Kışanak called for unity in the struggle for peace, democracy, and freedom, inviting everyone who shares these values to take the initiative. Her continued detention, despite fulfilling the sentence duration, highlights ongoing concerns about the use of prolonged detention as a punitive measure in Turkey.
