Osman Baydemir (born 1971 in

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, ...

) is a Turkish politician, lawyer and human rights activist of

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

descent. He was the mayor of his home town of

from 2004 to 2014. He was a member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

for the

Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party ( tr, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, ku, Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 20 ...

(BDP) and also the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP).

Early life and education

Osman Baydemir graduated from the Law Faculty of 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 ...

in Diyarbakır. In 1995 he became the chair of the Diyarbakır branch of the independent

Human Rights Association The Human Rights Association ( tr, İnsan Hakları Derneği, İHD) is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara. Establishment The İHD's origins can be traced to the victims of the purges in the ...

. Between 1995 and 2002 he was also a board member and became vice-president of the association.Osman Baydemir
Kim Kimdir? In February 1999 he became one of the first lawyers who volunteered to defend Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of 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). In 2001 he became a founding member of the

Human Rights Foundation of Turkey The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) ( tr, Türkiye İnsan Hakları Vakfı, TİHV) is headquartered in Ankara. The organization is committed to treating torture survivors and documenting human rights violations in daily bulletins, monthly an ...

(TİHV).

Political career

In the

general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

in 2002, he was the candidate of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), but the party failed to reach the 10% election threshold. In 2003, Baydemir spent 6 months in 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 ...

, to improve his

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. In the local elections in 2004, he was elected mayor of Diyarbakır. As Mayor of Diyarbakır he became a member of the World Federation of United Cities for which he toured several capitals in the world. He also held speeches about the difficulties Kurds face in Turkey to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. In the election campaign for the local election of 2009, he had a prominent opposition of the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer * Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and poli ...

. Baydemir won the elections and declared Diyarbakir as the DTP's castle. Soon after the victory in the elections of 2009, he was sentenced to ten months imprisonment for calling the

(PKK) "guerrilla" which a Turkish court viewed as propaganda in favor of the PKK. In the general elections of 2014 he was elected a Member of Parliament representing the BDP for

Sanliurfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features e ...

. As an MP, he was a well perceivable defender 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 ...

and minority in Turkey and was banned for two sessions of the Turkish parliament for using the word

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

, which is forbidden to use in the Turkish parliament.

Charges and threats

As a human rights activist and as a politician, Osman Baydemir has been subjected to persecution on various levels. According to a report of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

of 12 February 2004 there were 200 court cases against him for his human rights activities. The daily

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 ...

reported on 11 July 2006 that during the last two years a total of 129 investigations against him had been conducted. In June 2001 Amnesty International issued an urgent action on his behalf. After the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

of Armenian journalist

Hrant Dink Hrant Dink ( hy, Հրանդ Տինք; Western ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of ''Agos'', journalist and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspa ...

in January 2007 Osman Baydemir was among several people who received death threats. Some or the court cases against Osman Baydemir include: * In May 2006 Osman Baydemir was charged with for providing an ambulance of the municipality for the transport of a corpse. In September 2006 Osman Baydemir was acquitted. * Osman Baydemir and 55 other mayors 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 So ...

(DTP) were indicted because in December 2005 they signed a petition to the Danish Prime Minister

Anders Fogh Rasmussen Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of politi ...

urging him not to close the Kurdish television station

Roj TV Roj may refer to: * Rój, a district in Poland * Roj TV, a Kurdish satellite television station *Roj Blake, the eponymous rebel leader from the BBC television series ''Blake's 7'' * Andrzej Gąsienica Roj (1930-1989), Polish skier who competed in ...

. They were charged with supporting the

(PKK). The trial started in September 2006 and in April 2007 the prosecutor asked for sentences of 15 years' imprisonment for 52 mayors. * He was prosecuted for violating a Turkish law prohibiting the use of letters not in the Turkish alphabet when he sent out a New Year's greeting in Kurdish which included the letter "W". On 19 April 2007, Diyarbakır Peace Court No. 2 dropped the charges since the Ministry of Justice had not permitted that such a case be heard. *In October 2017 Baydemir was sentenced to 1 year, 5 months and 15 days of imprisonment for insulting an "on-duty government employee" after he called three police officers "fascists and low-lives". The verdict was confirmed in April 2018, following which he was expelled from parliament. *On 10 December 2018 Ahval news agency reported he was sentenced to 18 month of prison for violating the law of demonstrations and meetings. On the 17 March 2021, the State Prosecutor to the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

Bekir Şahin Bekir Şahin (born 1 March 1960, Mecitözü, Turkey) is a jurist, former judge and the current State Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation in Turkey. Education He was educated at the Imam Hatip school and studied law at the Dokuz Eylül Universi ...

filed a lawsuit in front of the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

demanding for Baydemir and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics together with a closure of the HDP due to alleged organizational links with the PKK.

Personal life

In May 2005 he married Reyhan Yalçındağ, the deputy chair of the TIHV. On 23 April 2006 their son Mirzanyar was born. After his expulsion of the Turkish parliament he left Turkey and went into exile to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

References

External links

What do the Kurds Want?
(December 2004) petition, signed also by Osman Baydemir. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baydemir, Osman 1971 births Turkish Kurdish politicians Living people Turkish human rights activists Mayors of Diyarbakır Democratic Society Party politicians Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Dicle University alumni Mayors of places in Turkey Kurdish jurists Exiled Turkish politicians