Veteran journalist Cengiz Candar to run for parliament with Green Left Party

Prominent Turkish journalist Cengiz Candar will run for the parliament in the ranks of the Green Left Party (YSP) in the upcoming elections in Turkey.

Green Left Party is the sister party of the pro-Kurdish HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) under which the HDP will run in the elections because of the risk of a possible court ban.

After accepting the nomination to run as a member of parliament for the YSP, the veteran journalist said he was "honored by the offer," adding, "I have spent more than half of my life working towards the equal and free unity of Turks and Kurds and the peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue. Our goal is a democratic Turkey, and we will achieve it together."

He added: “I am excited to offer all my energy and expertise to serve our people. We are at the threshold of a historic period, and our goal is a democratic Turkey. Together, we will achieve it."

The candidacy of Cengiz Candar, along with journalist Hasan Cemal and filmmaker-politican Sirri Sureyya Onder was applauded by some as a preparation for a new round of peace process between the Kurdish insurgency and Turkish state, as the pro-Kurdish HDP withdrew its presidential candidate and gave a tacit support for the opposition.

Cengiz Candar was born in Ankara in 1948. He was one of the student leaders of the 68 generation and he was sentenced to a total of nine years in prison following the 1971 military coup for his work as editor-in-chief of a magazine.

He left the country to participate in the "Palestinian liberation struggle" and spent most of the period between 1971 and 1973 in Lebanon and Beirut. In 1973, he moved to Europe, living in Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands.

In 1974, he returned to Turkey after benefiting from a pardon. And started his journalism career in 1976.

His first book, "Resisting Palestine," was published in 1976. He worked for Vatan newspaper, Turkish News Agency, Cumhuriyet between 1979-1987, Hürriyet between 1987-89, and Sabah newspaper between 1989-91, and since then he has been working as a freelance journalist. He has written extensively on Turkish politics, foreign affairs, and the Kurdish issue.