Nejdet Atalay (born 1978) is a former politician of the

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party ( tr, Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP, Kurdish: ''Partiya Civaka Demokratîk'', PCD) was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social-democratic and had observer status in the Soci ...

(DTP) and Mayor of

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

. He has been a supporter of Kurdish cultural and language rights and made the first legal defense in the Kurdish language in a Turkish court in 2013.

Early life and education

He was born in 1978 in a village in

Kozluk Kozluk ( ku, Hezzo) is a district of Batman Province, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located ma ...

and graduated from the

Dicle University Dicle University ( tr, Dicle Üniversitesi, ku, Zanîngeha Dîcleyê) is a public university located in Diyarbakır, Turkey, and one of the largest higher education institution. Vocational schools are located in Ergani, Çermik, Çüngüş, B ...

where he studied Mechanical engineering. He is married and is the father of two children. In 2006 he was the head of the diyarbakir branch of the

(DTP).

Political career

His political career was marked with his support for the

Kurdistan Workers Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK), which is prohibited in Turkey, but he views to have returned the Kurds their pride for their identity as Kurds. As the head of the Diyarbakir branch of the DTP, he aimed for similar rights for the Kurds which the Scots, the Catalans or Basques have which are an official recognition as a people, a regional government and parliament. After he attended a funeral of militants of the PKK which is an illegal organization in Turkey, he was arrested in April 2006. He defended himself that he attended the funeral in order to calm the crowd. He was released pending trial in July the same year. In 2008 he was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for terror related charges, with the court reasoning that he also stayed when the crowd began to show symbols of the PKK, a decision he appealed. After the appeal court also confirmed the sentence, he appealed to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

. In April 2020, the ECHR ruled in favor of Atalay and condemned Turkey to recompense him with 7000 Euro.

Mayor of Batman

During his electoral campaign towards the Mayorship of Batman he criticized the use of the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...

by the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP). In the municipal elections of March 2009 he was elected with 60%. On 24 December 2009, he was arrested and accused with terror related charges. As in 2010 in Batman the first Kurdish film festival was organized in Batman, a letter of the imprisoned Nejdet Atalay was read out in the Kurdish language highlighting the struggles the Kurds have to go through at a time their language is recognized as "an unknown language".

Imprisonment

During his imprisonment he demanded to make his defense in the Kurdish language, also becoming the first ever to give a testimony in the Kurdish language in January 2013. In the case against members of alleged members of the

Kurdistan Communities Union The Kurdistan Communities Union ( ku, Koma Civakên Kurdistanê, italic=yes, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. Öcalan, Abdullahbr>Declaration of Democratic ...

(KCK), he was the first to have been permitted to give a testimony in the Kurdish language in January 2013. In a separate trial he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for having called the militants of the PKK "warriors for the Kurdish people in the mountains". There he also gave he testimony in the Kurdish language, but the court wrote that he spoke in a language it "believes" to be the Kurdish language. On the 1 July 2014 he was released from prison with a ruling seeing the KCK case. Later he went into exile.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nejdet Atalay 1978 births Mayors of places in Turkey Democratic Society Party politicians People from Batman Province Dicle University alumni Living people