Ufuk Uras

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Mehmet Ufuk Uras (Turkish pronunciation:

left-libertarian politician and economist
.

Biography and political career

Uras graduated from the Faculty of Economics of

Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) in 1996. Uras resigned from the leadership after the 2002 general election
. He became the party chairman again in 2007.

2007 elections and after

Uras ran a successful campaign as an independent and a "common candidate of the Left" within the Thousand Hopes alliance,[1] backed by Kurdish-based Democratic Society Party and several left-wing, environmentalist and pro-peace groups in the 2007 general election, polling 81,486 votes, which is approximately 4 per cent of the vote in his constituency.[2] After having elected as an independent to the parliament he rejoined the ÖDP.[1] Therefore his parliamentary seat was the product of the alliance between the libertarian left and the Kurdish freedom movement in Turkey.

He was removed from his post as the ÖDP party leader in 2009, when his opponent Hayri Kozanoğlu was elected. He resigned from the Freedom and Solidarity Party on 19 June 2009.[3]

After the Democratic Society Party was dissolved in December 2009 and two of its MPs were banned from politics for five years, he joined forces with the remaining Kurdish MPs in the Peace and Democracy Party group, giving them the twenty seats necessary to retain their position as a parliamentary party. [4]

Post-parliamentarian political life

Uras did not run in the

Greens and the Left Party of the Future, founded as a merger of the Greens and the Equality and Democracy Party
.

Personal life

Uras is married to ballet dancer and choreographer Zeynep Tanbay. Uras has a son named Deniz from a former marriage.

Books

References