Ahmet Şık announces his candidacy

Journalist Ahmet Şık has published a written statement in which he announces that he has put himself forward as a potential Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentary candidate for Istanbul.

 There follows the full text of Ahmet Şık's statement:

 There are words whose meaning in life is greater than their dictionary counterparts. Peace, democracy, equality, justice and freedom are those that occur to me in an instant. As our thoughts mingle with the darkness we find ourselves in, I imagine that these are the ones that occur to you, too.

 The words hope and solidarity, whose value is better appreciated in such tyrannical periods in which the truth and those who speak the truth are branded enemies and their destruction is sought, must also be added to those we have listed.

 For, these are times in which hope, just like hopelessness, is contagious and in which we can destroy hopelessness through solidarity.

 For, as Oruç Aruoba has said, “Our experiences require us to set up our sky and ground anew.”

 For just this reason, I have dreams about our country and our future.

 I wish to vanquish the lie that has spread high and low from politics to the civil service and academia to the media and has begun to decay the whole of society and for our country to be bathed in the light of truth.

 For:

 Knowing the truth makes everyone equal to one another.

 Justice rising from the foundation of equality liberates people.

 If there is freedom, democracy takes hold.

 And democracy is the guarantee of peace.

 I am cognisant of the need to stand at the side of democratic forces in opposition to a corrupted order in which, with the judiciary made to do homage to the rulers, journalism, politics and everyone who stands in opposition to the single-man regime are held hostage, scientific autonomy is trampled on and even those who wish for peace are accused.

 We must wage a struggle for cohabitation so as to oppose racism becoming commonplace and the seeds of discrimination and hate being sown in order to bequeath to our children a country in which they will breathe in comfort and will be able to freely weave the future stitch by stitch.

 Silence, not their being strong, is the reason for the greater audibility of the threats and insults of those who extol war instead of peace and death instead of life and who endeavour to destroy equality, freedom and justice.

 We have the dream of an entirely different country in our thoughts. This is the dream of a country that cannot be encapsulated by the horizons of those who feed on darkness, evil and tyranny. A country whose burden we will shoulder and towards whose creation we can give a helping hand.

 To this end, we will struggle together to usher forth the strength that will be born of solidarity. We will stand up to violence regardless of who it comes from and absolutely but absolutely bring the peace, equality, freedom and justice we have longed for to prevail. We know that what distinguishes impossibility from that which is possible is people’s determination. And, if everything has not become good, this means that we have reached the end of nothing yet.

 We are hopeful.

 Hope creates both its own reality and future.

 I have said and let me repeat: This country deserves not the darkness of lies but the light of truth. My basic watchword in politics as in journalism will be to overcome the lies, as Nazım put it, “in the heart, in the streets, in the books from the lullabies of the mothers to the news report that the speaker reads.”

 It is for just this reason that I have put myself forward as a potential parliamentary candidate.

 I am a candidate to break the loop of silence and shine light on the truth of this beautiful country of ours. I am a candidate to show solidarity with all my politician, journalist, student and lawyer friends who have been taken hostage as personified by the Peoples’ Democratic Party presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtaş and his friends in struggle.

 I am a candidate to win the here and now along with our people that has forever put off the life it longs for until tomorrow.

 I am a candidate to bring about a life in which we will realise our children’s dreams.

 I know that if we are to change life, this will only be achieved together. It will be with you! It will be if we can be us.

 May our way forward be untrammelled and peace be before us.

 Ahmet Şık'tan adaylık açıklaması