Orhan Doğan (25 July 1955 – 29 June 2007) was a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

human rights lawyer and politician of the

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party (, 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 Socialist International. It was c ...

Education and professional career

In 1974 he went to the University of Ankara to study law and began working as an accountant at the Ankara Altındağ Primary Education Directorate. After graduating he took up an internship with Ismail Mungan. father of

Murathan Mungan Murathan Mungan (born 21 April 1955) is a Turkish author, short story writer, playwright, and poet. Biography Mungan's family originates from Mardin. His father is an Arab and mother is a Bosniak. After receiving his BA from the Faculty of L ...

. Later he settled to

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 ...

where he worked as a lawyer and during his term as the head of the Turkish Human Rights Association in the Sirnak province he was a defender of Kurdish rights. As a lawyer, he successfully represented the ones who were forced to eat feces by the Turkish authorities in Yeşilyurt before the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

Political career

He contributed to the Kurdish Report of the Social Democrat Populist Party (SHP) and later resigned from the party in 1989 in protest against the dismissal of seven Kurdish deputies for attending a Kurdish Identity and Human Rights Conference in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1991 he was elected to the Turkish Parliament, later joining the Democracy Party (DEP). He was in Cizre during the Newroz celebrations of 1992 when many attendants were massacred by the Turkish authorities. In 1994, his

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

was lifted and Doğan was arrested on the 17 March. On the 8 December 1994 he was convicted, together with other DEP deputies

Leyla Zana Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician in Turkey. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize ...

Hatip Dicle Mehmet Hatip Dicle (born 1955, Diyarbakir, Turkey), is a Kurds, Kurdish politician from Turkey. He was a member of the Democracy Party, then of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Early life and education Dicle grew up in a Kurds, Kurdish fam ...

and Selim Sadak, of membership in an organization (

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) and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was included as one of the prisoners of conscience of the Amnesty intentional. On the 17 July 2001, the

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

said the trial against Doğan was unfair. On the 22 April 2004 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 ...

issued a resolution hoping that the court of appeals quashes the sentence given to Doğan and others and that an amnesty will be declared to all imprisoned because of their political views. Upon his release in 2004 he helped to found the

(DTP).

Death

He died in 2007 following a heart attack he suffered, while giving a speech at a festival in Doğubeyazıt. To his funeral ceremony attended crowds of mourners, supporters of the PKK and an emissary from the

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK; ) is a political party active in Kurdistan Region and the Disputed territories of Northern Iraq, disputed territories in Iraq. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy a ...

(PUK). He was buried in the cemetery in Cizre.

Personal life

Orhan Doğan was the father of five children. One is the journalist and politician Aysegul Dogan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dogan, Orhan 1955 births 2007 deaths Turkish Kurdish politicians Deputies of Şırnak Social Democratic Populist Party (Turkey) politicians People's Labor Party politicians Democratic People's Party (Turkey) politicians Democracy Party (Turkey) politicians Democratic Society Party politicians People's Democracy Party politicians Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Turkey Turkish prisoners and detainees Expelled legislators