Özcan Mutlu (born January 10, 1968) in

Kelkit Kelkit is a town and district of Gümüşhane Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 39,547 of which 13,784 live in the town of Kelkit. The district covers an area of , and the town ...

Gümüşhane Province Gümüşhane Province ( tr, Gümüşhane ili ) is a province in northern Turkey, bordering Bayburt to the east, Trabzon to the north, Giresun and Erzincan to the west. It covers an area of 6,575 km2 and has a population of 129,618 in 2010. T ...

, Turkey, is a

Turkish-German Turks in Germany, also referred to as German Turks and Turkish Germans (german: Türken in Deutschland/Deutschtürken; tr, Almanya'da yaşayan Türkler/Almanya Türkleri), are ethnic Turkish people living in Germany. These terms are also used ...

politician from the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

Early years

Mutlu has lived in the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

district of

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

since 1973. He received his naturalization in 1990.

Education

He completed his training as an information electrician at the

Berlin Institute of Technology The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

from September 1985 to February 1989. Afterwards, he studied electrical engineering at the

Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin Beuth may refer to: * Beuth (locomotive) * Christian Peter Wilhelm Beuth * Peter Beuth * Beuth Verlag, a subsidiary of the DIN Group (Deutsches Institut für Normung ' (DIN; in English, the German Institute for Standardisation Registered As ...

from 1989 to 1993 and graduated as an engineer of communication and electronics. He combined an internship with a stay abroad in Omaha, (USA). After this, he worked in a telecommunication company as an engineer from 1993 to 1999.

Political career

Mutlu joined the Green Party in 1990, and was elected into the district assembly of Kreuzberg. He entered the regional parliament

Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (House of Deputies) () is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993 the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchne ...

in 1999 representing the district

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg () is the second borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg. The historic Oberbaum Bridge, formerly a Berlin border c ...

. He was re-elected in 2006 and 2011. During this period, he served in a number of parliamentary commissions, responsible particularly for policies of education, integration and migration as well as policies for Europe and Turkey. Mutlu was nominated by his party for the 2009 federal election; however, he missed the entry into the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

. Following the 2013 federal election, Mutlu won a seat in the Bundestag. He was one of the eleven politicians of Turkish descent who entered the federal parliament, including seven women. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment. On the committee, he was his parliamentary group’s

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on citizen participation.

Other activities

* Bilingual German-Turkish Europe School, Founding Member * Sister city agreement between Kreuzberg and

Kadıköy Kadıköy (), known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon ( gr, Χαλκηδών), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea o ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, Founding Member *

German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a nonpartisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972 through a gift from the We ...

, Marshall-Memorial Fellow * Stiftung Lesen, Member of the Board of Trustees * Young leader of the

Atlantik-Brücke Atlantik-Brücke (, ''Atlantic Bridge'') is a leading private non-profit association to promote German-American understanding and Atlanticism. Founded in Hamburg in 1952, it was located in Bonn between 1983 and 1999 and is now located in Berli ...

(2000)

Controversy

When Mutlu voted in a favor of a symbolic resolution in 2016 that remembered and condemned the 1915

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

by Ottoman forces, which Turkey refuses to acknowledge, he became one of eleven MPs of Turkish origin who received increased police protection and further security measures for both their professional and private activities. Also, Germany's foreign ministry warned him against travelling to Turkey because his safety could not be guaranteed after statements by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan suggesting that German lawmakers of Turkish origin had "tainted blood".Death threats amid Germany-Turkey 'genocide' row
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', June 6, 2016.

Personal life

Mutlu is married and has two children.

References

External links

Personal website
1968 births Living people Turkish emigrants to West Germany German politicians of Turkish descent Naturalized citizens of Germany People from Kelkit Technical University of Berlin alumni Turkish electrical engineers Members of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin Members of the Bundestag for Berlin Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag for Alliance 90/The Greens Politicians from Berlin {{Alliance 90/The Greens