Oz Karahan is a

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

political activist, columnist and current president of the Union of Cypriots.

Life and political career

Born in 1990, Oz Karahan spent his youth in Famagusta before moving back to

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...

where part of his family originates from. He graduated from Famagusta Namık Kemal High School. From a very young age, he joined and led a youth organization called Linobambaki, which was an active organisation during the 2011 Turkish Cypriot protests against Turkey. After completing his university studies in

Anglo-American University Anglo-American University (AAU) is a private university in Prague, Czech Republic, providing courses in English. Founded in 1990, it was the first private university in the country to use English as the language of instruction. History Anglo ...

, he became politically active in the United States, Sweden and Germany. During this time, was a member of the Communist Party USA in United States, as well as a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in Sweden. He was one of the founders of the World Union of Turkish-speaking Cypriots (WUTC), which fought against the Turkish occupation and the social and cultural oppression that

Turkish Cypriots Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,0 ...

face in the occupied areas of Cyprus because of Turkey. In 2019, he was an MEP candidate from the

Jasmine Movement The Jasmine Movement ( el, Κίνημα Γιασεμί; tr, Yasemin Hareketi) is a political movement in Cyprus. Jasmine Movement was established by Afrika newspaper's chief editor Şener Levent. It mainly consists of Turkish Cypriots struggli ...

in the

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

. He writes in his column “Gavur Imam” for the Avrupa newspaper.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karahan, Oz 1990 births Living people Cypriot politicians Cypriot activists Cypriot political writers Cypriot nationalists People from Famagusta People from Larnaca