An interesting photo taken in New York was circulated and largely shared on social media last week. It featured Sarah Jessica Parker, the famous Hollywood actress best known for her role in "Sex and the City," posing for cameras while holding a book written by Selahattin Demirtaş, a pro-PKK political leader imprisoned in Turkey.
The bookworm Parker, with a leopard print bag and fancy topcoat, was leaving a building in New York while showing the front page of the English translated version of Demirtaş's book, "Seher" ("Dawn").
The leaked photo immediately hit the pages of the famous fashion magazine Vogue with the title "Sarah Jessica Parker's Latest Accessory Proves She's a Consummate New Yorker."
Parker's latest look was written in the article as it "proves that, sometimes, being cultured is even better than owning the latest It bag."
"Stepping out in New York City today, Parker clutched the ultimate thinking woman's accessory: her favorite novel. Proving she is a real New Yorker – subway commutes mean a good book or podcast is necessary – she carried a copy of ‘Dawn,'" Vogue says, and defines the writer of the book as "a leading Kurdish politician who wrote it while behind bars." What a way to promote a terror-linked political figure.
Let's introduce our new famous writer whose masterpiece is being read by New York high society, Selahattin Demirtaş, the former chairman of a pro-PKK party, an outlawed armed group that has been executing a secessionist war against Turkey for almost 40 years.
Demirtaş has been held in pre-detention for trial since November 2016 for his active role in the bloody riots on Oct. 6-7, 2014, which resulted in the deaths of 50 people in the predominantly Kurdish regions of southeastern Turkey. You may ask how a man, who has innocent civilians' – particularly Kurdish people's – blood on his hands, can be praised and described as a "leading Kurdish politician." Believe me, no one who is sane in the country can find an answer for that.
To top it off, Demirtaş, or shall we say Mr. Writer, meanwhile, was also declared "an honorary member" for his very first book, "Dawn," by PEN International, a London-based worldwide association of writers. Demirtaş's nonliterary masterpiece may sooner or later take its place in the bestseller sections in the bookstores in New York City. Don't be surprised if Mr. Writer is also announced as a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature next year.
The PR campaign for Demirtaş is not, indeed, something new nor unique to Parker as it was observed in the presidential and general elections how he had been widely promoted as a "peacemaking Kurdish leader" by Western media.
To be honest, I wasn't shocked at all. Because, as the Turkish army is nowadays preparing to launch a major counterterror offensive against PKK-linked elements near its border in northern Syria, such a PR photo or article for the PKK or familiar figures linked to it was or is expected. Let's see how many times Demirtaş or the PKK will be appreciated in the near future as the Turkish military starts hitting PKK formations in the region.
