Orhan Miroğlu (born 1 January 1953,

Mardin Mardin ( ku, Mêrdîn; ar, ماردين; syr, ܡܪܕܝܢ, Merdīn; hy, Մարդին) is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) is a Turkish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Mhallami The Mhallami, Mahallami, or Mardelli ( ar, محلّمي, Mḥallame; ku, Mehelmî; syr, ܡܚܠ̈ܡܝܐ, Mḥallmāye; tr, Mıhellemi) is an Arabic-speaking tribal ethnic group traditionally living in and around the city of Mardin, Turkey. Due ...

origin and

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

for

Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circulati ...

and

Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...

Education and early life

Born in the village of Gelinkaya, Miroğlu spent his youth in

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 ...

and

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

and following his graduation from the Diyarbakir Vocational School he was employed as a teacher for a year. He was arrested in the aftermath of the coup d'état in 1980. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for his involvement in the . He was released in 1988. On the 20 September 1992, he was wounded during the assassination of

Musa Anter Musa Anter (1920 – 20 September 1992), also known as "Apê Musa" ( ku, Apê Musa, literally "Uncle Musa"), was a Kurdish writer, journalist and intellectual and was assassinated by Turkish JITEM in September 1992. Early life and education He w ...

, which he says was carried out by the

Turkish Gendarmerie The Gendarmerie General Command ( tr, Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) is the national Gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in a ...

JITEM Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the unofficial and illegal intel ...

. Miroğlu speaks native level Turkish, advanced level of Kurdish and Arabic, and an intermediate level of English. His mother knew Arabic and Kurdish.

Political career

He was involved in several pro-Kurdish parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (HADEP), the Democratic Peoples Party (DEHAP) or 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). He was banned from

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

for five years, following the 2009 closure of the

(DTP). Later he joined 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) and was elected as a member of parliament representing

in the parliamentary elections of June 2015, and the following snap elections of November 2015. In January 2021, he claimed that Joe Biden, the president of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

was actually a Kurd of the Biruki tribe.

Professional career

Miroglu was a journalist for several newspapers such as the ''Taraf'', the ''Zaman'', '' Özgür Politika'', or ''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally considered ...

''.

Books

* ''Dıjwar – Onlara Dair Her Şey'' (Avesta Yayınları, 2004) * ''Çapraz Ateşte İki Halk: Türkler ve Kürtler – Yeni Jeopolitika ve Nasyonalizm'' (Beybûn, 2005). * ''O'na Zarfsız Kuşlar Gönderin''- Uğur KAYMAZ Kitabı (agorakitaplığı) * ''Kuşatmadan İnfaza: Musa Anter Cinayeti'' - on the 1992 assassination of

References

External links

Taraf columns
Turkish people of Mhallami descent Living people People from Midyat Democratic Social Party politicians Taraf people Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey 1953 births {{turkey-journalist-stub