Can a Kurdish person be a presidential candidate?

Nurettin Yilmaz was an independent congressman from Mardin, before the military coup in 1980. During the presidential elections in March 1980, which continued for 114 rounds and gave no results, he was also an independent candidate.

He was going to pay the price for this daring.

After the coup, Nurettin Yilmaz would be taken to Diyarbakir prison and there he would be given "special treatment", just because he applied for candidacy, or to put it better, just because he was "able to".

I still remember his statements at the "Democracy Archive" program in 2009:

"Major Esat Oktay Yildiran had come to the 3rd floor especially for me. As soon as I entered, he said "The President of Kurdistan has arrived". He wanted me to take the "I"m Turkish, honest and hardworking" oath. I didn"t. He landed the first hit and then they hit me with a truncheon and threw me to the sewer... With each strike, they reminded me of my candidacy...

There were days, in which, even the idea of a candidacy was met with rage and bellow. At the Diyarbakir prison all ten quatrains of the Turkish national anthem were forcefully made memorized through torture and beating. People were stripped naked in front of their wives, just because they were Kurdish. The price for being Kurdish was humiliation, torture and death. From those days, we have finally reached the days of applying Kurdish sensitivity and the leader of a political party, which is the legal representative of the Kurdish political movement, has become a presidential candidate.

Yesterday I had mentioned and quoted from Ümit Firat"s article. Firat"s entrance sentence was remarkable:

"I would have liked to have written, "The adventure expanding from the "Establishing a democratic communal dictatorship in an Independent and United Kurdistan, and ultimately bringing into practice a society without class" thesis to the presidential candidate of the Republic of Turkey" as the title of this article..."

The naked truth behind these statements is underlining the milestone that has been reached by democracy, the hope in the solution of the Kurdish issue and Turkey.

Of course, there are two sides to the coin.

It is true that today Kurds are still tied to some restraints, while they are forming a party. The Kurdish issue is still taking lives, thousands of people are still in prisons and with the paranoia of disintegration, the state is showing special sensitivity towards the enforcements oriented towards Kurds. Unknown murders, losses and confrontation issue still remains.

But, another correct case is that Kurds are taking part in Turkey"s politics. And while they are protecting their Kurdish identities, moreover, they are beginning to be one of the founding actors of new Turkey.

Today, one by one, Kurds are able to voice their demands through organizations and parties about matters like; independent state, federation, autonomy, authority increase in local administration, and moreover, they are doing politics with the desire to take place in the future of Turkey.

BDP was the party who had discouraged the active participation in Gezi incidents. The party thus prevented the turn of events and stood against illegitimate administrations during the December 17 wave and indirectly stood behind the government on this attack that was outside the politics.

With this attitude, the Kurdish political movement had reached a position where they supported the stability, provided the stability indirectly, and became the only opponent party that stood against the system crisis with a principal attitude while not failing to criticize AK Party.

As for today, HDP is a political party, which can affect the equilibriums against AK Party"s leader Tayyip Erdogan with the votes it will get, which is the challenge of placing itself in the center of Turkey"s opposing party.

The meaning of a Kurdish congressman, who also happens to be chairman of the party that is the carrier of the Kurdish problem, becoming a presidential candidate, is massive, a precedent.

This should be especially acknowledged.

And also, it should be known that, Kurdish struggles play a big part in this.

Though, the story of the past ten years, the party in power, the attitude of the political mechanism, expectations and transformation of the society, also played an important role in this result.

This is a story of democracy in our lacking democracy.