Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu (born 2 November 1965) is a Turkish medical doctor (
pulmonologist
Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language fam ...
Şarkikaraağaç
Şarkikaraağaç is a town in Isparta Province in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean Region of Anatolia (Asian Turkey). It is the seat of Şarkikaraağaç District.Religious Vocational School) in
Bursa
Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...
, Turkey. In 1990, he graduated from the Medical School of the
Anadolu University
Anadolu University () is a public university in Eskişehir, Turkey. Anadolu University Distance Education Faculty (or Anadolu University Global Campus) serves as the national provider of distance education and is a member of the European Associ ...
.
Professional career
He began working at a Medical Center in Tecirli,
Iğdır
Iğdır (; or ; ; or ) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Iğdır Province and Iğdır District.
. His second stop was Orhaneli State Hospital, Bursa.
He was successful in the Expertise in Medical Science (TUS) in 1995. He completed his expertise training in
pulmonology
Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. ...
at Süreyyapaşa Pulmonology Hospital in 2000.
In 2005, he started working as a pulmonologist (with a focus on tuberculosis) at Seka State Hospital, Kocaeli.
He was suspended from public service due to one of the messages he shared on social media during the
State of Emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...
He was active in the field of education between 2009 and 2015. He was the founding manager of a pre-school education institute. He was also the Kocaeli representative of an educational institution named Akil Oyunlari ('Mind Games' in English), which is focused on developing children's intelligence.
Human Rights Career
Between 2003 and 2007, he assumed the presidency of the Kocaeli Branch of Association for Human Rights and Solidarity for the Oppressed (known as MAZLUMDER an abbreviation of its Turkish name: 'İnsan Hakları ve Mazlumlar İçin Dayanışma Derneği'). At the local level in Kocaeli, he led various activities from freedom of expression to women's rights. He pioneered drafting reports and organizing petitions. He initiated the 'Freedom to headscarf' campaign and oversaw it for years.
In 2007, the General Assembly of MAZLUMDER appointed him as the President at the national level. Despite the calls from the General Assembly to continue his function, Gergerlioglu decided to leave the presidency in 2009. He was one of the co-signatories of the
I apologize campaign
"I Apologize" () is an online campaign launched in December 2008 in Turkey by numerous journalists, politicians, and professors, calling for a collective apology for the Armenian genocide, which the campaign calls "the Great Catastrophe that Otto ...
, in which several personalities of the Turkish-Kurdish society encouraged Turkey to take responsibility for their role regarding the massacres suffered by the Armenians.
He became the spokesperson of Kocaeli Peace Platform (2013), which consisted of various NGOs that are active in Kocaeli, and the spokesperson of Rights and Justice Platform, which was founded in March 2017.
He attended countless human rights events both in Turkey and abroad, and organized various human rights campaigns, including drafting reports on specific issues. Since 2007, he has been writing about national and global political issues in local, national and international newspapers and websites. He has given countless interviews on websites and makes podcasts on human rights violations. He makes weekly broadcasts on Periscope named 'OFG TV'.
Gergerlioglu is a supporter of Kurdish rights. After Sur and
Cizre
Cizre () is a city in the Cizre District of Şırnak Province in Turkey. It is located on the river Tigris by the Syria–Turkey border and close to the Iraq–Turkey border. Cizre is in the historical region of Upper Mesopotamia and the cultura ...
operations, he and other human rights activists released a declaration criticizing excessive usage of force and human rights violations of security forces.
In the aftermath of the 15 July 2016, coup attempt in Turkey, he has been mainly focused on the legal and social effects of the State of Emergency (OHAL), particularly the decree-laws (KHK). He played the leading role in revealing torture cases (such as the case of tortured Turkish diplomats) and in bringing human rights tragedies to the public attention (such as the case of Ahmet Burhan Atac).
Examples of his activities
* He was the head researcher of the field study on 'Ethnic and Religious Discrimination in Turkey.
Examples of his articles and interviews
* 'Turkey's political prisoners at grave risk from COVID-19',
Washington Examiner
The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative news magazine based in Washington, D.C., consisting of a website and a weekly printed magazine. It is owned by Philip Anschutz through MediaDC, a subsidiar ...
(11 May 2020).
* His interview about the bill on execution of sentences in Turkey,
Al Arabiya
Arabiya (, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is a Saudi state-owned international Arabic news television channel. It is based in Riyadh and is a subsidiary of MBC Group.
The channel is a flagship of the media c ...
(15 May 2020).
Legal prosecution and controversies
On the 11 October 2016, an investigation against Gergerlioğlu was initiated for having shared an image on
twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
in support of a Kurdish Turkish peace process, depicting mothers behind a symbolic coffin draped with a
Turkish flag
The national flag of Turkey, officially the Turkish flag (), is a red flag featuring a white crescent and star on its emblem, based on the 18th-century Ottoman Empire flag. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the ...
and another one with the flag of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...
. The image was taken during a manifestation of the Peace Mothers on the
World Peace Day
The International Day of Peace, also officially known as World Peace Day, is a United Nations-sanctioned holiday observed annually on 21 September. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might ...
. On the 13 October, he was summoned by his superior at the state hospital in
İzmit
İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea ...
and suspended from his duties.
Nacho Sánchez Amor
José Ignacio "Nacho" Sánchez Amor (; born 1960) is a Spanish politician who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019.
Early life and education
Born on 15 May 1960 in Cáceres, he was raised in Jaraíz de la Vera. He moved t ...
, the current rapporteur for Turkey of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...
, condemned the confirmation the sentence in February 2021. Gergerlioğlu is still able to appeal the verdict at 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 ru ...
.
In February 2018, Gergerlioğlu was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison after sharing an article on Twitter with the title "PKK: if the state takes the initiative, peace can be achieved within a month". The online newspaper who published the article, T24, was not prosecuted. Due to this conviction, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was stripped of his parliamentary membership on the 17 March 2021. Following he would not leave the building of the Turkish Parliament and initiated a so-called "Justice Watch" together with other Member of Parliaments from the HDP. The same day his Parliamentary immunity was revoked, the Turkish state prosecutor before 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 ...
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 Univer ...
filed a lawsuit before 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 ru ...
demanding for him and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics. The lawsuit was filed together with the request for a closure of the HDP due to the parties alleged organizational links with the PKK and its politicians role in terrorist activities. On 21 March 2021 in the morning he was detained by the Turkish police and dragged out of the Turkish Parliament. He was released shortly after he delivered testimony regarding him not leaving the Turkish Parliament while being expelled from it. On 2 April 2021 he was arrested. Hours later he was brought to hospital to get an emergency operation. After the operation he was brought out of intensive care and sent back to prison.
The Constitutional Court restored Gergerlioğlu's parliamentary membership on 1 July 2021, stating that his rights had been violated when he was convicted. He was released from jail on 6 July and the ruling of the court was read out in the Grand National Assembly on 16 July.
Political career
At the parliamentary elections of 24 June 2018, he was elected to the
Turkish Grand National Assembly
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
(TBMM) representing Kocaeli for the People's Democratic Party (HDP). He is a member of the Parliamentary Commission of Human Rights Inquiry. He draws attention to human rights violations and campaigns to improve the rights of Kurds, prisoners and people who have been purged after July 15, 2016 coup attempt. In January 2018, he signed a petition against Turkey's
Operation Olive Branch
Operation Olive Branch () was an invasion by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the Kurdish-majority Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Th ...
* The Intellectual of the Year Award by Feta Initiative and Sakarya Voluntary Educators Association (2013)
*Selected as the 'Person of the Year (2019)' by the
Ahval
Ahval is an Emirati-funded online news website that solely reports on Turkey. The site was launched in 2017. Turkish journalist Yavuz Baydar is the current editor-in-chief. The name ''Ahval'' means "events" and is a Turkish Arabism derivation fro ...