Rakel Dink to represent Kurdish party in Turkish parliamentary elections

LINING UP CANDIDATES
May 10, 2007
Rastî

"The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win."
~ Leonid Brezhnev.

According to Milliyet, Rakel Dink, Akin Birdal, and Gencay Gursoy will be offered the opportunity to run as independent candidates by the Kurdish DTP. According to the same report, famed Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunc has already applied with DTP to become an independent candidate from Dersim.

Rakel Dink is the widow of Hrant Dink, who was murdered by the Deep State in January of this year. Akin Birdal, who survived an assassination attempt by the Deep State in 1998, has long been in the fight for human rights in Turkey, having served many years as the Istanbul IHD head. Gencay Gursoy is the chief of the Turkish Doctor's Union.

And so the elections become much more interesting as DTP begins to make its moves. We should know more by next week, when all shall be revealed.

See also something from English-language Sabah, from the hevals at KurdishInfo. They also have another item about AKP's efforts to limit the votes of illiterate voters--and this piece of legislation was aimed specifically voters in "The Southeast."

That's democracy, right?

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.