THE LECTURE IS SOLD OUT. TICKETS TO LIVE TRANSMISSION ON BIG SCREEN ARE AVAILABLE HERE (https://pay.ebillett.no/velg_antall.php?arrnr=21345&frs_id=4926788&frs_pris=&dato=&p_id=154&).
In the June 2015 Turkish general election, the Kurdish coalition party HDP surpassed the election threshold, and with 13 per cent of the votes, they ensured that the sitting president Erdogan’s party AKP lost the parliamentary majority for the first time since they came to power in 2002.
Erdogan responded by calling off the peace talks they had been leading since 2013 with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), that has been fighting for Kurdish independence since 1978. Suddenly, the country found itself in a civil war-like state, described by many as the worst Turkey has seen in decades.
In the middle of this situation is Selahattin Demirtaş, chairman of the HDP and one of the most unifying leader figures in the Kurdish movement – considered by many as the man that holds the key to the Kurds’ future in Turkey. He will give this year’s Saladin lecture.
The lecture will be held in Turkish, and simultaneously interpreted into English. In order to accommodate an expected large turnout, tickets are sold online at 30,- NOK
English By Selahattin Demirtaş Wergeland Litteraturhuset Saladindagene 2016