DEM Party Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor candidate Meral Danış Beştaş made her first statement to ANF after her nomination.

Meral Danış Beştaş said: "An offer has been made in line with the requests and suggestions of our Central Executive Board. It is a heavy responsibility and burden, but we will shoulder it on behalf of our people."

Meral Danış Beştaş said: "Istanbul is also a Kurdish city. It is where the largest Kurdish population in the country is. You encounter a Kurd at every step. Istanbul is also the city of Alevis and Black Sea people. It is a city that includes many people. Istanbul is a city that embraces all segments of society."

'If we succeed in Istanbul, we can succeed in the whole country’

Meral Danış Beştaş said about the propaganda of ‘splitting the vote’: "We are not splitting the vote; we will get our own votes. On the contrary, others want to divide our votes! Those who want our votes are making this propaganda. We are the third largest party in Turkey, and we participate in elections everywhere. We have our claim, our cause. We want the establishment of a democracy where everyone lives equally and together. We are fighting for a country where the Kurdish issue is resolved democratically.

We have no intention of supporting another party or making another party lose. We set out to win.”

Beştaş added: “We seek the votes of all the people in Istanbul. Because if we succeed in Istanbul, we will succeed in the whole country and spread our ideas of an equal and coexistent life for everyone. We set out neither to take anyone's vote nor to hinder anyone. Our aim is to win and to make people gain. We want Istanbul to be governed by those who live in Istanbul.

Meral Danış Beştaş

Meral Danış Beştaş was born in 1967 in Mazıdağı, Mardin. She graduated from Dicle University Faculty of Law in 1990. She worked as an independent lawyer affiliated with the Diyarbakır Bar Association, where she also served in various capacities within the bar administration. She specialized in women's rights and human rights issues and represented clients in cases of human rights violations brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). She held positions within the Human Rights Association (IHD).

She served as the applicant's lawyer in Turkey's first conviction for domestic violence, known as the Opuz case.

Beştaş served as the co-vice chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and was a member of its legal commission. She was elected as a Member of Parliament for Adana in the 25th and 26th terms, and for Siirt in the 27th term. She held the positions of co-spokesperson and co-chair of the Legal and Human Rights Commission within the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).