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Osman Baydemir

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Osman Baydemir
Mayor of Diyarbakır
In office
2004–2014
Preceded byFeridun Çelik
Succeeded byGülten Kışanak
Member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office
2014
Personal details
Born (1971-01-01) 1 January 1971 (age 53)
Diyarbakır, Turkey

Osman Baydemir (born 1971 in Diyarbakır) is a Kurdish politician, lawyer and human rights activist. He was the mayor of his home town of Diyarbakır from 2004 to 2014. He was a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and also the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP).

Early life and education

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Osman Baydemir graduated from the Law Faculty of the Dicle University in Diyarbakır. In 1995 he became the chair of the Diyarbakır branch of the independent Human Rights Association. Between 1995 and 2002 he was also a board member and became vice-president of the association.[1][unreliable source?] In February 1999 he became one of the first lawyers who volunteered to defend Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[2] In 2001 he became a founding member of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV).[3]

Political career

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In the general elections in 2002, he was the candidate of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), but the party failed to reach the 10% election threshold. In 2003, Baydemir spent 6 months in the United States, to improve his English. In the local elections in 2004, he was elected mayor of Diyarbakır.[1][4] As Mayor of Diyarbakır he became a member of the World Federation of United Cities for which he toured several capitals in the world. He also held speeches about the difficulties Kurds face in Turkey to the European Parliament.[5][6] In the election campaign for the local election of 2009, he had a prominent opposition of the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.[7] Baydemir won the elections and declared Diyarbakir as the DTP's castle.[8] Soon after the victory in the elections of 2009, he was sentenced to ten months imprisonment for calling the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) "guerrilla" which a Turkish court viewed as propaganda in favor of the PKK.[7] In the general elections of 2014 he was elected a Member of Parliament representing the BDP for Sanliurfa.[9] As an MP, he was a well perceivable defender of the Kurdish language and minority in Turkey[10] and was banned for two sessions of the Turkish parliament for using the word Kurdistan, which is forbidden to use in the Turkish parliament.[10][11] Osman Baydemir then filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court which argued it had no authority of parliamentarian penalties[12] Following, Baydemir appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over his temporary expulsion, who in June 2023, condemned Turkey to pay Baydemir a penalty of almost 17'000 Euros.[12]

Prosecution

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As a human rights activist and as a politician, Osman Baydemir has been subjected to persecution on various levels. According to a report of Amnesty International of 12 February 2004 there were 200 court cases against him for his human rights activities.[13] The daily Radikal reported on 11 July 2006 that during the last two years a total of 129 investigations against him had been conducted.[14] In June 2001 Amnesty International issued an urgent action on his behalf.[15] After the assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007 Osman Baydemir was among several people who received death threats.[16]

Some or the court cases against Osman Baydemir include:

  • In May 2006 Osman Baydemir was charged with for providing an ambulance of the municipality for the transport of a corpse.[17] In September 2006 Osman Baydemir was acquitted.[18]
  • Osman Baydemir and 55 other mayors of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) were indicted because in December 2005 they signed a petition to the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urging him not to close the Kurdish television station Roj TV. They were charged with supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The trial started in September 2006 and in April 2007 the prosecutor asked for sentences of 15 years' imprisonment for 52 mayors.[19]
  • He was prosecuted for violating a Turkish law prohibiting the use of letters not in the Turkish alphabet when he sent out a New Year's greeting in Kurdish which included the letter "W".[20] On 19 April 2007, Diyarbakır Peace Court No. 2 dropped the charges since the Ministry of Justice had not permitted that such a case be heard.[6]
  • He was charged with forbidden propaganda for having referred to the PKK as the "armed Kurdish opposition", but was acquitted in December 2009 as it was seen as freedom of thought by a court in Diyarbakır.[21]
  • In October 2017 Baydemir was sentenced to 1 year, 5 months and 15 days of imprisonment for insulting an "on-duty government employee" after he called three police officers "fascists and low-lives".[22] The verdict was confirmed in April 2018, following which he was expelled from parliament.[23]
  • On 10 December 2018 Ahval news agency reported he was sentenced to 18 month of prison for violating the law of demonstrations and meetings.[24]

On the 17 March 2021, the State Prosecutor to the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin filed a lawsuit in front of the Constitutional Court demanding for Baydemir and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics together with a closure of the HDP due to alleged organizational links with the PKK.[25][26]

Personal life

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In May 2005, he married Reyhan Yalçındağ, the deputy chair of the TIHV. On 23 April 2006 their son Mirzanyar was born.[27] After his expulsion of the Turkish parliament he left Turkey and went into exile to London, United Kingdom.[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b Osman Baydemir, Kim Kimdir?
  2. ^ Akyol, Cahit; Kurt, Nurettin (24 February 1999). "Yuhalandılar". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  3. ^ "Board of Founders". Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. 4 December 2006. Archived from the original on 14 August 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  4. ^ O'Connor, Francis (2017). "The Relationship between PKK and Kurdish Political Parties". Peace Research Institute Frankfurt: 13].
  5. ^ Watts, Nicole F. (1 July 2011). Activists in Office: Kurdish Politics and Protest in Turkey. University of Washington Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-295-80082-0.
  6. ^ a b "Daily human rights report". Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. 20 April 2007. Archived from the original on 14 August 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Turkey sentences to jail the mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city of Northern Kurdistan". Nationalia. 21 April 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  8. ^ Gunter, Michael M. (4 November 2010). Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Scarecrow Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-8108-7507-4.
  9. ^ "Seçim 2014 Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi Şanlıurfa Yerel Seçim Sonuçları". www.haberturk.com. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  10. ^ a b van Wilgenburg, Wladimir (13 December 2017). "Kurdish MP banished from Turkey Parliament for uttering 'Kurdistan'". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  11. ^ "Turkey's Parliament bans Kurdish deputy from two sessions for saying 'Kurdistan'". Stockholm Center for Freedom. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  12. ^ a b "ECHR finds rights violation in penalty imposed on former HDP MP Osman Baydemir over 'Kurdistan' remark". Gazete Duvar (in Turkish). 13 June 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  13. ^ "Turkey: Restrictive laws, arbitrary application – the pressure on human rights defenders". Amnesty International. 12 February 2004. Retrieved 20 August 2008. See footnote 18.
  14. ^ "Baydemir'e iki yılda 129 soruşturma". DHA (in Turkish). Radikal. 7 November 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  15. ^ "Turkey: Death threats/Fear for safety Eren Keskin and Osman Baydemir". Amnesty International. 6 June 2001. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  16. ^ "Singer Ferhat Tunç informed about death threat with two months delay". Freemuse. 10 April 2007. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  17. ^ Cebe, Özgur (30 May 2002). "Ambulans davası açıldı". DHA. Milliyet. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  18. ^ "Baydemir beraat etti". DHA (in Turkish). Radikal. 28 September 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  19. ^ "Prosecutor seeks 15 years for Kurdish mayors over Denmark letter". AFP. Kurdish Institute of Paris. 3 April 2007. Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  20. ^ "Daily human rights report". Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. 20 August 2008. Archived from the original on 14 August 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  21. ^ Endoroglu, Erol (4 December 2009). "Court Ruled: Freedom of Speech Instead of Forbidden Propaganda". Bianet.
  22. ^ Kurdistan24. "Turkey court sentences pro-Kurdish HDP's Baydemir to 17 months in prison". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2 July 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "Two more HDP deputies ousted from Turkish parliament". Rudaw. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  24. ^ "Former pro-Kurdish deputies face prison". Ahval. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  25. ^ "Turkish prosecutor seeks political ban on 687 pro-Kurdish politicians". www.duvarenglish.com. Gazete Duvar. 18 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  26. ^ "HDP indictment seeks political ban for 687 members, including Demirtaş, Buldan and Sancar". Bianet. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  27. ^ "Osman Baydemir got married (Turkish)". newspaper Zaman. 6 August 2005. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  28. ^ "Staatsanwaltschaft will Osman Baydemir ausliefern lassen". Firat News Agency (in German). Retrieved 28 December 2021.
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