Osman Baydemir

Osman Baydemir 2013

Osman Baydemir (* 1971 in Diyarbakır ) is a Turkish-Kurdish lawyer, human rights activist and member of the Halkların Demokratik Partisi in the Turkish parliament. He studied law at Dicle University in Diyarbakır and was mayor of that city between 2004 and 2014.

Life

Baydemir was elected to the board of the Diyarbakırs branch of the İnsan Hakları Derneği human rights organization in 1995 . Until 2002 he held various positions in the İHD such as board member, vice president of the organization and chairman of the Diyarbakır branch. In early 1999 he was one of the first lawyers who agreed to defend Abdullah Ocalan and wanted to visit him in prison. On November 3, 2002, Baydemir ran for the Kurdish party DEHAP in the parliamentary elections in Turkey . However, the party was unable to overcome the 10% electoral threshold . In 2003 he spent six months in the US to improve his English. In 2004, Baydemir was elected Lord Mayor of Diyarbakır. He was confirmed in office by the 2009 local elections . For the 2014 local elections , Baydemir no longer ran for Diyarbakır, but for the mayor's office of the city of Şanlıurfa , which he did not win. His successor in Diyarbakır was Validan Kışanak .

Baydemir is married to the deputy chairwoman of the İHD, the lawyer Reyhan Yalçındağ. The couple have a son named Mir Zanyar and a daughter named Ranya.

Prosecution

Both in his position as a human rights activist and as a politician, a large number of investigative and criminal proceedings have opened against Osman Baydemir. According to a report from early 2004 on the pressure on human rights defenders , Osman Baydemir had around 200 cases pending. The daily newspaper Radikal reported on July 11, 2006 that there had been 129 investigations against Osman Baydemir in the past two years.

Individual reports on proceedings

• May 25, 2004: acquittal for insulting a police officer
• May 31, 2006: Charged with providing an ambulance for killed PKK militants. In these proceedings, Osman Baydemir was acquitted in September 2006.
• June 24, 2006: Interview charged with Tempo magazine
• October 4, 2006: Trial of speech at the funeral of a PKK militant
• In October 2017: sentenced to 1 year, 5 months and 15 days in prison for calling 3 Turkish policemen fascists and scoundrels in 2012.
• October 13, 2017: Exclusion of 2 parliamentary sessions because of the use of the word Kurdistan in parliament
• December 10, 2018: sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating the Assembly Act by participating in rallies in 2015.

The petition to Anders Fogh Rasmussen

56 DTP mayors , including Osman Baydemir, from cities in south-east and east Anatolia have petitioned the Prime Minister of Denmark , Anders Fogh Rasmussen , not to close Roj TV . Thereupon the public prosecutor in Diyarbakır sued the pro-Kurdish mayors because Roj TV had contacts with the PKK . Rasmussen made a radio interview on June 16, 2006 and was very surprised that he had even received a petition. He criticized the Turkish authorities, which indicted the mayor over a petition. The 5th Chamber of the Diyarbakir Grand Criminal Chamber (previously the 2nd Chamber of the Diyarbakir State Security Court) sentenced 53 mayors (including Osman Baydemir) to 75 each on April 15, 2008 under Article 215 of the Turkish Penal Code (praising a criminal or a crime) Days imprisonment converted to a fine of 1875 YTL (about 1000 euros).

International contacts

Osman Baydemir has participated in many international conferences, particularly on problems of local administration. In May 2004, he took part in the founding event of an umbrella organization for local government called the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) in Paris. According to a report in the Internet newspaper kenthaber that should have been in May 2005. Baydemir was elected to the board. The website of the Middle East and West Asian Section (MEWA) of the UCLG calls him Co-President .

In 2005 and 2006 Osman Baydemir made at least eight trips abroad and visited a.o. a. Athens , Frankfurt , Cologne , Paris , Berlin and Stockholm . On November 22nd and 23rd, 2004 Baydemir took part in the conference "EU, Turkey and Kurds" in Brussels . The conference also took place in 2005 and 2006. Osman Baydemir submitted a written contribution dated September 20, 2005. Because of this contribution, the Ministry of the Interior launched an investigation and sent two state secretaries to Diyarbakir.

In an August 2005 press release, Osman Baydemir complained that the city administration was being prevented from using the funds promised by international bodies on eight projects. In the press release of August 12, 2005, Baydemir pointed out that within the financial cooperation between Turkey and the EU, support of 1.8 million euros had been granted. But other projects have been hindered. This included a project on wastewater treatment, which the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) wanted to support with half a million euros, and a project for a tram, for which Deutsche Bank wanted to provide 5 million euros. In April 2008 KfW announced that the Diyarbakir wastewater disposal project had been completed with a financial investment of 50 million euros and that fish were swimming again in the Tigris .

In the course of the KCK trials , Baydemir was banned from leaving Turkey on January 13, 2010. The verdict was reversed in 2013 with a government reform package.

Web links

Unless otherwise noted, the information on this website is taken from the biographies of people in Turkey

• Article in: taz , May 31, 2006
• Petition by DTP officials against the closure of ROJ TV
• Rasmussen makes a statement regarding the petition
• claudia-roth.de
• Article in: taz , April 27, 2006
• Interview by Karin Leukefeld with Osman Baydemir on January 13, 2001 on human rights issues
• The lawyer Jutta Hermanns explains the controversial statement by Osman Baydemir on a plane hijacking (November 1998)
• Profile on the website of the Turkish Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ^ A message from Hürriyet on behalf of the Turkish daily press
2. ↑ A portrait of this human rights activist can be found on the Amnesty International website
3. ↑ German text (PDF; 344 kB) and English text
4. ↑ footnote 18 of the report
5. ↑ A summary of the news can be found in German at the Democratic Turkey Forum (DTF)
6. ↑ Message translated at DTF
7. ↑ Message translated at DTF ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2008 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. 
8. ↑ Message translated at DTF ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 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. 
9. ↑ Message translated at DTF
10. ↑ Message translated at DTF
11. ↑ Kurdistan24: Kurdish lawmaker in Turkey sentenced to six years in prison . In: Kurdistan24 . ( kurdistan24.net [accessed July 13, 2018]).
12. ↑ Afrin university opens its doors | ANHA. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 18, 2018 ; accessed on February 18, 2018 . 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.  
13. ^ Former pro-Kurdish deputies face prison. Retrieved December 10, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Message about the opening of the process can be found at the DTF
15. ^ Found on January 7, 2009 at the DTF on a page about the persecution of Kurdish mayors . See the page for more details on the proceedings against Osman Baydemir.
16. ↑ United Cities and Local Governments in the English language Wikipedia
17. ↑ ^{a b c} The message of February 26, 2006 was found here  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (on January 7, 2009)  
18. ↑ Information under http://www.uclg-mewa.org/en/mewa-co-presidents.htm found on January 7, 2009
19. ↑ The article with the title Turkey's Integration to EU and Solution of Kurdish Problem is with the EU Civic Commission ( Memento of the original of November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to find (accessed on January 7, 2009) 
20. ^ Announcement in Radikal from September 10, 2005 (accessed on January 7, 2009)
21. ↑ Article in: Radikal , September 5, 2007 (accessed January 7, 2009)
22. ↑ The entire press release ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2007 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. in Turkish (accessed January 7, 2009) 
23. ↑ Information can be found on the homepage of Kfw Development Bank (accessed on January 7, 2009)
24. ↑ Henek bû rastî: Baydemîr êdî dikare here derveyî Tirkiyê In: Rûdaw. Retrieved April 5, 2012