Öztürk Türkdoğan (born 10 November 1969,

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

, Turkey) is a lawyer and Human Rights activist and politician. He was the head of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), a member of the Wise People committee for the peace process in 2013 and for the parliamentary elections of May 2023, he has become a candidate to the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

for the

Green Left Party Party of Greens and the Left Future (, YSGP), abbreviated as Green Left Party (, YSP), is a Green politics, green and left-libertarian party in Turkey. History The first YSP was founded on 25 November 2012 as a merger of the Greens Party (Tur ...

(YSP).

Early life and education

Öztürk Türkdogan was born in a village in

Selim Salim, Saleem or Selim may refer to: People *Salim (name), or Saleem or Salem or Selim, a name of Arabic origin **Salim (poet) (1800–1866), Kurdish poet **Saleem (playwright), Palestinian-American gay Muslim playwright, actor, DJ, and dancer * ...

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

where he attended primary school later transferring to

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

where he completed primary school and began attending high school. He moved a gain to Izmir, where he completed high school in

Bergama Bergama is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,544 km2, and its population is 105,754 (2022). By excluding İzmir's metropolitan area, it is one of the prominent districts of the province in terms of populatio ...

. After his graduation from the Health Vocational School in Yenisehir, he began working as a health officer in 1988. The same year he began to study law at the Ankara University from where he graduated in 1994.

Professional life

Öztürk Türkdogan quit as a health officer in 1998, and following worked as a lawyer. Since the same year he is a legal advisor to the Social Service Worker's Union (SES). Between 2002 and 2009 he served as legal adviser to the Confederation of Public Employees' Unions (KESK) of which he was a founding board member. In 2002, he became a member of the Central Board of the IHD, and became its chairman in 2008. Türkdogan resigned from the leadership of the IHD in March 2023, after he decided to run as a candidate to the Turkish parliament.

Eren Keskin Eren Keskin (born April 24, 1959 in Bursa, Turkey) is a Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist in Turkey. She is the vice-president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (İHD) and a former president of its Istanbul branch. She co-founded th ...

became his successor.

Legal prosecution

He was arrested on the 19 March 2021 due to an investigation concerning eventual activities of the prohibited

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 ...

(PKK). The same day he was released pending trial. The month before, the interior minister accused the IHD of being linked to the PKK. Soylu deemed he statements regarding the deaths of Turkish soldiers in a Turkish military operation by the IHD, the PKK and HDP as similar. By the prosecution, he was accused of being part of an illegal organization. The investigation concerned statements regarding the detention conditions of Abullah Öcalan, which were published on the website of the news agency ANF. Since, January 2022, he was also investigated over the publication of a petition that called for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide on the IHD website {{Cite web , last=Bourke , first=Fiachra , date=2022-04-28 , title=Turkey: Öztürk Türkdoğan facing multiple criminal proceedings (joint communication) , url=https://srdefenders.org/turkey-ozturk-turkdogan-facing-multiple-criminal-proceedings-joint-communication/ , access-date=2023-05-07 , website=UN SR Human Rights Defenders , language=en-GB In April 2022, he was acquitted from being part of an illegal organization, but the other trials kept ongoing.

Personal life

He is married and has two children.

References

1969 births People from Selim Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni 21st-century Turkish lawyers Turkish human rights activists Living people