Ertuğrul Kürkçü
Ertuğrul Kürkçü | |
---|---|
President of the Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation | |
Assumed office 18 October 1970 | |
Preceded by | Atilla Sarp |
Personal details | |
Born | Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation (DEV-GENÇ) Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) | 5 May 1948
Website | www |
Ertuğrul Kürkçü (born 5 May 1948) is a Turkish politician, socialist activist and the current Honorary President of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as of 22 June 2014 and Honorary Associate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Recent Political Background
He previously served as the co-chair of the HDP between October 2013 and June 2014 with co-chair Sebahat Tuncel. Kürkçü and Tuncel also served as co-spokespersons for the Peoples' Democratic Congress between 2011 and 2016. Tuncel stepped down on 23 January 2016 and was replaced by Gülistan Koçyiğit.
Kürkçü was elected in the 2015 June and November general elections consecutively as a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)
Kürkçü represented his party also in the
Kürkçü[2] was among 51 HDP deputies whose parliamentary immunities were lifted through a controversial temporary constitutional amendment which was sharply criticized by the Venice Commission, the legal advisory body of the Council of Europe.[3] The amendment was voted on 20 May 2016 and passed in a secret vote with the votes of 376 deputies in favor.[4][5] Kürkçü is under ongoing legal prosecution for more than 16 separate charges for the speeches he made outside the parliament and for the popular protests he joined during his 7 years of deputyship. He has been sentenced two years in December 2018 by the Iğdır Penal Court and pending appeal. Total charges against Kürkçü amount to some 40 years.
Ertuğrul Kürkçü, upon the proposal of the Unified European Left Group (UEL) in the PACE, was awarded with a "Honorary Membership" in October 2018.[6]
Origins
Kürkçü was born in
Fight for Unified Broad Left
After his release from prison, Kürkçü begun his editorial career as the Editor in Chief for the 'Encyclopedia of Socialism and Social Struggles'. He continued his political life in the struggle for the unification of Turkey's socialist left movement. He was one of the founders of the
In this first successful joint campaign of the Kurdish Liberation Movement and Turkey's left and democratic forces. Kürkçü and the other Bloc candidates ran as independents in order to bypass the 10% electoral threshold. As a candidate for the Mediterranean Mersin province, he was elected to Parliament with 9.7% of the vote.[8] In his first term in the Parliament, he was a member of the Human Rights Investigation Committee.
Journalistic career
Having entered the parliament Kürkçü resigned from his position of project coordinator of Bianet - one of the vanguards of Turkey's online journalism to which he contributed also with his news and articles.[9][10]
He was also active as a political journalist, columnist and editor alongside his online journalism career. He had edited and contributed for the Political Gazette between 2002 and 2007, while also writing for numerous political party publications beforehand.[11]
In March 1997, Kürkçü was sentenced to 10 months in prison for translating a Human Rights Watch report titled "War and People: Arms Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey" into Turkish together with the publisher Ayşe Zarakolu. Following an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the Turkish Government was ordered to pay €2,500 in damages.
Selected works
- Tracking The Rebellion (İsyanın İzinde), November 2013
- The Reason of Practice and The Enthusiasm of Theory (Pratiğin Aklı Teorinin Heyecanı), May 2014
- Encyclopedia of Socialism and Social Struggles (Ed.) (Sosyalizm ve Toplumsal Mücadeleler Ansiklopedisi), 1987
References
- ^ "Ertuğrul Kürkçü". Ertuğrul Kürkçü. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ Kalafat, Haluk. "HDP Honorary Chair Ertuğrul Kürkçü Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison". Bianet. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
- ^ "Turkey / Opinion on the suspension of the second paragraph of the article 83 of the constitution (Parliamentary Inviolability)". Retrieved 31 January 2020.
- ^ "Turkey passes bill to strip politicians of immunity". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
- ^ "Turkish parliament strips MPs of immunity in blow to Kurdish opposition". Reuters. 2016-05-20. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
- ^ "Ertuğrul Kürkçü to be Entitled PACE 'Honorary Membership'". Bianet. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
- ISBN 9781848854840.
- ^ "Mersın 2011 Genel Seçım Sonuçlari". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
- ^ "Bianet". Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ "Bianet". Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ "AKP demokrasiye gitmek için bir imkân değildir".