Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu (born 1966;

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 ...

) is a Kurdish Turkish politician and lawyer who led the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party from June 2013 to May 2018 and again from June 2021 on.

Biography

Born in 1966 in the city of

in the southeastern part of

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 ...

, he worked as a lawyer from 1990 to 2012 after finishing his education as a lawyer in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. He co-founded the Free Cause Party in 2013 in an attempt to consolidate the conservative Kurdish vote. Yapıcıoğlu had previously been a supporter of Kurdish Hezbollah and also stated that the cause of Hüda-Par was the continuation of that of Sheikh Said. Yapıcıoğlu is Anti-Darwinian and generally uses Islamic rhetoric in his speeches. Moreover, he is against 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 ...

, anti-America and also criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party's policies and their failure in bringing peace to Kurdish areas.

Electoral history

Yapıcıoğlu ran unsuccessfully as an independent twice in 2015 and in 2018 in the district of Diyarbakır and received 3.4% and 4.3% of the vote share respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yapicioglu, Zekeriya 1966 births Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Free Cause Party politicians People from Batman, Turkey Turkish Kurdish politicians Living people 21st-century Turkish politicians