Orhan Miroğlu (born 1 January 1953,

Midyat Midyat (, , , ) is a municipality and district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,241 km2, and its population is 120,069 (2022). In the modern era, the town is populated by Kurds, Mhallami Arabs and Assyrians. The old Estel neighborho ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) is a Turkish

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Mhallami The Mhallami people, also known as Mardelli or alternatively spelled as Mahallami (; ; ; ) are an Arabic-speaking tribal ethnic group traditionally living in and around the city of Mardin, Turkey. Although they originate from a diverse mosaic in ...

origin and

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (periodical), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the ...

for

Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circula ...

and

Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...

Education and early life

Born in the village of Gelinkaya, Miroğlu spent his youth in

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

and

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, it is ...

and following his graduation from the Diyarbakir Vocational School he was employed as a teacher for a year. He was arrested in the aftermath of the coup d'état in 1980. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for his involvement in the . He was released in 1988. On the 20 September 1992, he was wounded during the assassination of

Musa Anter Musa Anter (1920 – 20 September 1992), also known as "Apê Musa" (, literally "Uncle Musa"), was a Kurdish writer, journalist and intellectual. Anter was assassinated by Turkish JITEM in September 1992. Early life and education He was born i ...

, which he says was carried out by the

Turkish Gendarmerie The Gendarmerie General Command () is the national gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdi ...

JITEM Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the intelligence department of ...

. Miroğlu speaks native level Turkish, advanced level of Kurdish and Arabic, and an intermediate level of English. His mother knew Arabic and Kurdish.

Political career

He was involved in several pro-Kurdish parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (HADEP), the Democratic Peoples Party (DEHAP) or 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 ...

(DTP). He was banned from

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

for five years, following the 2009 closure of the

(DTP). Later he joined the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP) and was elected as a member of parliament representing

Mardin Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...

in the parliamentary elections of June 2015, and the following snap elections of November 2015. In January 2021, he claimed that

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

, the president of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

was actually a

Kurd Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

of the Biruki tribe.

Professional career

Miroglu was a journalist for several newspapers such as the ''Taraf'', the ''Zaman'', ''

Özgür Politika Özgür () is a unisex Turkish given name and a surname meaning "free" and ''independent''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Özgür Baran Aksaka (born 2003), Turkish-Bulgarian footballer * Özgür Aktaş (born 1997), Dutch fo ...

'', or ''

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 consider ...

''.

Books

* ''Dıjwar – Onlara Dair Her Şey'' (Avesta Yayınları, 2004) * ''Çapraz Ateşte İki Halk: Türkler ve Kürtler – Yeni Jeopolitika ve Nasyonalizm'' (Beybûn, 2005). * ''O'na Zarfsız Kuşlar Gönderin''- Uğur KAYMAZ Kitabı (agorakitaplığı) * ''Kuşatmadan İnfaza: Musa Anter Cinayeti'' - on the 1992 assassination of

References

External links

Taraf columns
Turkish people of Mhallami descent Living people People from Midyat Democratic Social Party politicians Taraf people Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey 1953 births {{turkey-journalist-stub