Mehdi Zana

Mehdi Zana (* 1940 in Silvan , Diyarbakır Province ) is a Kurdish politician , former mayor of Diyarbakır in Turkey and husband of Leyla Zana .

Life

In 1963 he became a member of the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Devrimci Doğu Kültür Ocakları . From this point on his further life was determined by long imprisonment periods. Again and again he is arrested and imprisoned for his political activities. Mehdi Zana spent a total of 16 years behind bars: 1967, 1971 to 1974, 1980 to 1991 and another one and a half years from 1994 to 1995. He was charged with so-called “opinion crimes” because he or he spoke Kurdish, for example allegedly hurt “national feelings” or sought the separation of the Kurdish regions from Turkish territory (so-called “separatism propaganda”). In 1975 the then 34-year-old Mehdi Zana married a distant relative, Leyla , who was twenty years his junior (born May 3, 1961); a constellation not unusual in Kurdish society to this day. In 1975 the couple's first child - son Ronay - was born.

In 1977 Mehdi Zana, with the support of the Socialist Party of Kurdistan (Özgürlük Yolu) (of which he is a co-founder), was elected mayor of Diyarbakır, the “capital” of the Kurdish east of Turkey, by 54 percent of the electorate. As a result, he tried to improve the situation of the impoverished and discriminated population. Despite empty coffers and the blocking of funds for the city by the Turkish government, he built a basic supply (e.g. sewerage, electricity and garbage disposal) in the poorest areas of the city.

The military coup of September 12, 1980 put an end to all these efforts and plans. The imposition of martial law, the dissolution of parliament, the ban on all parties, trade unions and associations by the so-called National Security Council (MGK - Milli Güvenlik Kurulu), which now consists exclusively of the military, was followed by a nationwide hunt for members of the Turkish parliament, ministers, and leaders of political parties and groups, trade unionists, academics and journalists - in short, to all "elements" which, in the opinion of the now ruling military junta, did not fit into their image of the ideal Kemalist republic.

After the coup, military prisons were reopened across Turkey. 650,000 people were arrested for political reasons. Mehdi Zana was also removed from office, arrested in Istanbul on September 24, 1980 , charged with "separatism propaganda" and imprisoned - for the next 11 years of his life. First to the Istanbul Military Academy. “The cell was 1.80 meters long, 1.80 high and 70 centimeters wide. I was buried alive in the coffin. ” The cruelest tortures followed by sadistic prison guards: days of imprisonment in the dark, beatings, kicks up to unconsciousness, hours of interrogation with blindfolded eyes, electric shocks to the genitals, sham shootings. After more than a month, Zana was first transferred to the No. 1 Military Prison in Diyarbakır . After the coup, the prison was placed under the military.

Eventually they were transferred to another prison in Diyarbakır, a prison that Zana referred to in his memoirs as "Hell Number 5" , where the "brutality and sadism of the guards were beyond human imagination" (Mehdi Zana). 34 people died in this prison between 1981 and 1984, dozens of irreparable injuries were inflicted, almost every kind of torture was used on the prisoners by sadistic guards. Twenty (of the 34) people were tortured to death in this prison, 5 died during the numerous hunger strikes with which the prisoners tried to defend themselves, 9 people put an end to their own lives to escape the torture. Mehdi Zana was transferred to two other prisons and participated in a total of three hunger strikes by prisoners. In May 1991 he was finally released early.

Zana lived in exile in Sweden for a long time and was able to return to Turkey in 2004.

Name change

Mehdi Zana was born as Mehdi Bilici. But during his active time at TİP he wrote several papers in response to Nihal Atsız . He signed this with Zana, the Kurdish translation of his surname. When he came to court about these writings, he told the judge that this was his last name. A court decision then set Zana as his last name.

Books

• Mehdi Zana: Hell No. 5. Diary from a Turkish prison . ISBN 3-89533-209-7

Individual evidence

1. ↑ kurdistan.org June 26, 1998: What I Witnessed in Diyarbakir Prison. The statement by Mehdi Zana an the occasion of the International Day in support of torture victims and survivors ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Young World October 9, 2010: The Unyielding
3. ^ Young World October 9, 2010: The Unyielding
4. ↑ Der Spiegel October 31, 1983: Spiegel interview: “We are creating a completely new Turkey”. Ex-general and party leader Turgut Sunalp and his advisor Kamran Inan on torture, military dictatorship and democracy
5. ↑ Der Spiegel October 31, 1983: In a minute one hundred years back. The Turkish military lets vote - but remains in power.
6. ^ Journal for Left Theory: Brief History of Resistance in Prisons since 1980
7. ↑ taz September 27, 2010: As if buried alive in a coffin
8. ↑ kurdistan.org June 26, 1998: What I Witnessed in Diyarbakir Prison. The statement by Mehdi Zana an the occasion of the International Day in support of torture victims and survivors ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ taz September 27, 2010: As if buried alive in a coffin
10. ↑ kurdistan.org June 26, 1998: What I Witnessed in Diyarbakir Prison. The statement by Mehdi Zana an the occasion of the International Day in support of torture victims and survivors ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ taz September 27, 2010: As if buried alive in a coffin
12. ↑ Today's Zaman October 12, 2010: Victims seek legal redress for Diyarbakir Prison atrocities ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Literature by and about Mehdi Zana in the catalog of the German National Library