Demirtaş rose to prominence in Turkey’s June elections. He led the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) into parliament for the first time, with 13 per cent of the vote and 79 MPs.
The telegenic young Kurdish politician is proving a breath of fresh air, combining a gift for oratory with a cool-headed sense of strategy that have allowed him to move beyond his eastern Kurdish base and build support amongst secular Turks in the west of the country. His staunch commitment to human rights is proving popular with women and LGBT people.
