Orhan Doğan | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Grand National Assembly | |
| In office 14 November 1991 – 17 March 1994 | |
| Constituency | Şırnak (1991) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-07-25)25 July 1955 |
| Died | 29 June 2007(2007-06-29) (aged 51) Doğubayazıt,Ağrı, Turkey |
| Citizenship | Turkey |
Orhan Doğan (25 July 1955 – 29 June 2007) was aKurdish human rights lawyer and politician of theDemocratic Society Party.[1]
In 1974 he went to the University of Ankara to study law[1] and began working as an accountant at the Ankara Altındağ Primary Education Directorate. After graduating he took up an internship with Ismail Mungan. father ofMurathan Mungan. Later he settled toCizre where he worked as a lawyer and during his term as the head of theTurkish Human Rights Association in theSirnak province he was a defender of Kurdish rights.[1] As a lawyer, he successfully represented the ones who were forced toeat feces by the Turkish authorities in Yeşilyurt before theEuropean Court of Human Rights.[2]
He contributed to the Kurdish Report of theSocial 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 inParis.[1]
In 1991 he was elected to theTurkish Parliament,[3] later joining theDemocracy Party (DEP). He was in Cizre during theNewroz celebrations of 1992 when many attendants were massacred by the Turkish authorities.[2] In 1994, hisparliamentary immunity was lifted[4] and Doğan was arrested on the 17 March.[1] On the 8 December 1994 he was convicted, together with other DEP deputiesLeyla Zana,Hatip Dicle andSelim Sadak, of membership in an organization (Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK) and sentenced to 15 years in prison.[5] He was included as one of theprisoners of conscience of the Amnesty intentional.[6][7][8] On the 17 July 2001, theEuropean Court of Human Rights inStrasbourg said the trial against Doğan was unfair. On the 22 April 2004 theEuropean Parliament 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.[9]
Upon his release in 2004 he helped to found theDemocratic Society Party (DTP).[1]
He died in 2007 following a heart attack he suffered, while giving a speech at a festival inDoğubeyazıt.[1] To his funeral ceremony attended crowds of mourners, supporters of the PKK and an emissary from thePatriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).[2] He was buried in the cemetery in Cizre.[2]
Orhan Doğan was the father of five children.[10] One is the journalist and politicianAysegul Dogan.[10]