Kurdish politician and pop star among Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US magazine Foreign Policy has included two Kurds – Selahattin Demirtas and Helly Luv – among the 100 Leading Global Thinkers of the year.
Selahettin Demirtas, co-chief of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party was named by the magazine “For Dashing Erdogan Dreams,” referring to the Kurdish politician standing up to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections in June.
"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a thorn in his side, and his name is Selahettin Demirtas,” the magazine said about the 42-year-old lawyer who led the HDP in the June national election.
It added that Demirtas did not let Erdogan form a majority government when his party “won enough seats to prevent Erdogan's party from maintaining its legislative majority."
Demirtas's wise politics "broadened the HDP appeal, showing it as representing not only Kurdish interest but also liberalism, women's and gay rights, environmentalism and opposition to Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian politics,” it said.
FP concluded its description on Demirtas as "the Kurdish Obama" quoting his media nickname.
Away from politics, Helly Luv, a Kurdish pop star with international fame, is also on FP’s 2015 list.
“For making the Peshmerga's Fight Go rival” is how the magazine described why it picked her.
In one music video, the Kurdish pop star stares down an Islamic State tank.
"If I can fight against them (ISIS) with my music, then my song is as powerful as , or more powerful than their weapons," FP quoted Luv as saying in an interview with NBC News.
Her “Revolution” clip has been viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube, which was shot with ISIS only a few miles away.
"I did not want to shoot this video in Los Angeles, because I just needed to show the truth of the war," she said in another interview.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Angela Merkel also mek the list.
FP picks those selected represent the best decision makers, challengers, innovators, advocates, artists, health, stewards, chroniclers and moguls.