Murat Bozlak | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader of thePeople's Democracy Party | |
| In office 1994–1999 | |
| Succeeded by | Turan Demir |
| In office 2000–2002 | |
| Member of the Grand National Assembly | |
| In office 12 June 2011 – 4 January 2015 | |
| Constituency | Adana (2011) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 December 1952 Şereflikoçhisar, Ankara |
| Died | 4 January 2015(2015-01-04) (aged 62) Ankara |
| Party | HADEP |
| Other political affiliations | HDP,DEP |
| Alma mater | Ankara University |
| Occupation | Lawyer, politician |
Murat Bozlak, (30 December 1952 – 4 January 2015) was a Kurdish politician active in several political parties. He was the president of thePeople's Democracy Party (HADEP) and a member of theGrand National Assembly of Turkey for thePeoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Bozlak was a Kurdish politician[1] and a founding member of theSocial Democracy Party (SODEP), theSocial Democratic Populist Party (SHP), thePeople's Labor Party (HEP), theDemocracy Party (DEP) and the HADEP. The first two parties were dissolved,[2] while the latter three were banned by the Turkishconstitutional court.[3]
Bozlak graduated fromAnkara University Law Faculty and following worked as an independent lawyer.[4]
In February 1994, when he was secretary-general of the DEP, Bozlak survived an assassination attempt inAnkara.[5] Following the detention of DEP deputies in March 1994 and a move to close the DEP, he founded the HADEP in May 1994.[3] In November 1998, afterItaly refused to extraditeAbdullah Öcalan to Turkey, he was detained together with dozens of other HADEP members and accused for having supported a country wide hunger strike in opposition to the Turkish approach towards theKurdish Turkish conflict[6] In the same month he was arrested and sentenced to a prison term of one year for speeches he held in 1993.[6] Several Members of theParliament of the United Kingdom aroundJeremy Corbyn condemned the arrest, noting that Bozlak has only pursued a negotiated solution to the Kurdish-Turkish conflict.[7] Bozlak was able to leave the prison in April 1997.[8] He shortly delivered the presidency of the HADEP to Turan Demir in September 1999.[3] He reassumed the presidency during the 4th party congress in November 2000, after Demir was sentenced to 10 months in prison for terrorist propaganda.[9] For thegeneral elections of November 2002, in worries of a party ban of the HADEP, he resigned from its presidency and joined theDemocratic People's Party (DEHAP). But his candidacy for theDiyarbakır province was invalidated by the Turkish electoral authorities.[10] In his stead, his wife Zeycan Bozlak became the DEHAP candidate for Diyarbakır.[10] The HADEP was closed down by the Turkish constitutional court in October 2003[11] and Bozlak was banned from politics for five years.[3]
In the June 2011 elections, Bozlak was elected to the Turkish parliament as an independent candidate representing Adana[12] for theLabor, Democracy and Freedom Bloc supported by thePeace and Democracy Party (BDP). In 2014, Bozlak and 26 other MPs of the BDP joined the HDP, which following formed a parliamentary group.[13]
He maintained thatKurdistan was separated into four parts afterWorld War I and included into a "national-colonial system" and reserved for the Kurds the right for "self-determination".[14] He then also wanted that the Kurds in Turkey, were able to be recognized as such and allowed to organize themselves democratically.[14] He further denied that the Kurds had a problem with the Turkish people, but more with the Turkish Government.[14]
He served as an Adana deputy until January 2015, when he died. He refused a ceremony traditionally held for deceased deputies in front of the Turkish Parliament. Instead, a ceremony was held on 6 January in front of the headquarters of the DBP in Ankara before he was buried in his home village.[15] He was married and a father to three children.[4]