Şerafettin Elçi

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Şerafettin Elçi (born March 14, 1938 in Cizre , Şırnak Province , † December 25, 2012 in Diyarbakır ) was a Kurdish member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and a minister. Elçi came from a farming family. When the border between Syria and Turkey was established after the First World War , his family's property remained in Syria, so they became impoverished.

Career

Şerafettin Elçi attended elementary and middle school in Cizre and graduated from high school in Mardin . In 1955 he began to study law in Ankara . In 1959, his family was indicted against a group of Kurdish personalities in the course of the 49 trial. After his legal clerkship in Diyarbakır , Şerafettin Elçi worked as a lawyer in Cizre. After the coup on March 12, 1971 , he was detained in Diyarbakır Prison for eight months . In 1977 he was elected to parliament as a member of the Adalet Partisi (Justice Party) for the province of Mardin .

However, he left the AP in 1978 with ten other MPs and moved to the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People's Party) Bülent Ecevits . In his government he became Minister for Building and Urban Development. After the coup on September 12, 1980 , Elçi was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for his testimony that there were Kurds in Turkey and that he was also a Kurd. He was finally released after 27 months in prison. Elçi later became active as a Kurdish politician and on January 3, 1997 founded the "Demokratik Kitle Partisi" (The Democratic Mass Party). This was banned by the Constitutional Court on February 26, 1999 because it violated the indivisibility of people and state. Years later, on December 19, 2006, he founded the " Katılımcı Demokrasi Partisi " KADEP (Participating Democratic Party) of which he is chairman. With his KADEP, Elçi stands for a federal solution to the Kurdish question within the borders of Turkey.

Şerafettin Elçi ran for the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011 as an independent candidate for Diyarbakır Province and won. For this he had to leave the KADEP beforehand. His candidacy was supported by the Emek, Demokrasi ve Özgürlük Bloku (Block of Labor, Democracy and Freedom). He later rejoined KADEP, so that the party is represented with a seat in parliament.

death

In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Radikal on February 6, 2012 , Elçi said that he had had cancer for two years . Elçi died on December 25, 2012 as a result of the disease. After a ceremony in front of the parliament on December 26, the body was flown to Diyarbakır and from there to Cizre. Several thousand people, politicians, his companions, artists and representatives of the Kurdish parties from the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq attended his funeral on December 27th .

Elçi was married to Fatma Elçi and had six children. One of his sons-in-law is the former national soccer coach Mustafa Denizli .

Sirnak Airport, which opened in 2013, is named after Şerafettin Elçi.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Çözüm için Kürtleri tatmin, Türkleri de ikna etmek lazım , article in Radikal of February 6, 2012
  2. ↑ Message on the website of the Turkish Parliament (Turkish)
  3. ↑ Rest in Peace Turkey's Ambassador of Peace! ( Memento of November 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), article by Sabah

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Elçi, Şerafettin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish Kurdish politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Cizre
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 2012
Place of death Diyarbakır