Selahattin Demirtas nominated for 2019 Nobel Peace Prize

Emir Ali Turkmen, the publisher of “Seher” (Dawn), which Demirtas wrote while in jail, confirmed to Gazete Duvar that Swedish politician Thomas Hammarberg, a member of the Swedish parliament from the Social Democratic Party, nominated the jailed politician for the prestigious prize.

In a letter he wrote to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Hammarberg said Demirtas has assumed an important role over the past 12 years in supporting every attempt in favor of peace between the Kurds and Turks as well as promoting minority rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights and democracy, Turkish Minute reported.

Hammarberg said as a leading Kurdish politician, Demirtas has dedicated his life to a struggle for the achievement of these values.

A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize may be submitted by any person who qualifies in one category of a list of criteria determined by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

The Swedish politician said Demirtas has been courageous and undeterred in his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem and has always worked for the end of the war against the Kurds in Turkey and Syria.

He said although Demirtas is behind bars, he reminds everyone that the struggle for peace is more important than ever, so he was respectfully nominating him for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

A court found Demirtas guilty in September of disseminating terrorist propaganda and sentenced him to four years, eight months in prison.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on Nov. 20 that Demirtas’s pre-trial detention was a political act and ordered his release. Turkish courts refused to implement the European court’s ruling, and a regional appeals court in Turkey on Dec. 4 upheld Demirtas’s four year, eight month prison sentence for disseminating terrorist propaganda.

Demirtas unsuccessfully ran against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2014 and 2018 presidential elections. In his second attempt, the Kurdish politician had to carry out his election campaign from jail.

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