Journalist and writer Cengiz Çandar is running for the Green Left Party (YSP) in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) in Turkey's parliamentary elections on 14 May. The 75-year-old was born in Ankara and studied political science. His academic career, which he began as an assistant in the Faculty of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, was interrupted by the military coup of 12 March 1971. He fled to Beirut and Damascus respectively, later went to Western Europe and returned to Turkey in 1974 after a general amnesty under Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. Since 1976 he has worked as a professional journalist for numerous newspapers. He first encountered the Kurdish question in Syria in the 1970s. In 1973, he met Jalal Talabani, the first president of Iraq after Saddam. After that, he became intensively involved with the Kurdish question. Çandar has received numerous awards for his publications. In August 2016, he received a research assignment at Stockholm University. Due to his candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections, he returned to Turkey after seven years.

When HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar told him that he could run in Amed (Diyarbakır), Çandar said: "I am very happy because I am ethnically Turkish, but from Kurdistan at heart". He said that the offer to be nominated as the Green Left Party’s candidate on list position 3 in Amed made him proud and happy, and that he would fight for the political and social rights of Kurds. Çandar also reiterated this at election rallies where he greeted people in Kurdish.

BEYOND MY IMAGINATION

Çandar told ANF that his reception in Amed had been just great. However, he observed that the Green Left Party was more accepted than he was. The HDP, as the second largest opposition party after the CHP, is not contesting the elections due to the ongoing ban proceedings against it, and instead supports the Green Left Party, which was founded over ten years ago and with which it has long cooperated. Çandar said that for the Green Left Party candidates, the support and loyalty of the people towards the HDP and the Kurdish Freedom Movement is important: "The movement itself is actually there. I had already expected that the people would receive us well, but when I said 'great' earlier, I meant that I saw a warmth beyond my imagination. We didn't expect it to be so warm. Without any distance, without the need to show simple courtesy in between, I saw people embracing us and me with a great wave of love. I saw their eyes shine." 

AS IF I HAD NEVER LEFT HERE

Çandar noted that the candidacy represents a new phase in his life and he is happy to be in Amed. "When I arrived here, I thought I was doing the right thing. I have been here less than a week and have not been to Turkey for seven years. Actually, I wanted to return to Turkey after the elections. Suddenly, when this candidacy came up, I found myself in Turkey, a country I hadn't been to for seven years and to which I hadn't come because of certain risks. Before I could really place it, I found myself in the districts and neighbourhoods of Amed. It felt like I had been here anyway and had never left."

ERDOĞAN WILL LEAVE THE POLITICAL STAGE

Commenting on the election campaign visit of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan to Amed, Cengiz Çandar stated that members of all public institutions in the city and surrounding towns were virtually obliged to attend: "Nevertheless, not 3,000 people gathered here. Whoever I talked to, Erdoğan's visit to Amed was not on anyone's agenda. To be honest, it was not on my agenda either, and it did not occur to me to ask anyone. Nobody said: 'Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech here that day and said the following.' I found out from the internet what he said in Amed. It was never on the agenda. It is not important for Amed. People are only concerned with waiting for 14 May so that the regime of oppression can end. The relationship of this region with Tayyip Erdoğan is that people are eagerly waiting for the day when he will leave. That is why the Green Left Party has set itself an ambitious and not unrealistic goal of winning all twelve seats in Amed. Time is running out for the AKP and Tayyip Erdoğan. God willing, he will be gone from the political stage in the country and the world on 14 May."