Osman Baydemir
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Osman Baydemir (born 1971) is a Turkish politician, lawyer and human rights activist of Kurdish origin. He is the current mayor of his home town of Diyarbakır and member of the Democratic Society Party (DTP).
He joined the independent Human Rights Association İnsan Haklari Derneği in 1995. In 2002, he became vice-president of the association. At the general elections in 2002, he was the candidate of the Democratic People's Party, but the party failed to reach the 10% election threshold. In 2003, Baydemir spent 6 months in the United States, in order to improve his English. In 2004, he was elected mayor of Diyarbakır.
Because he signed a petition against the closure of the Kurdish television station Roj TV, he is now facing trial for supporting the PKK. He is also being prosecuted for violating a Turkish law prohibiting the use of letters not in the Turkish alphabet when he sent out a New Year's greeting in Kurdish which included the letter "W".[citation needed] In may 2005 he got married to Reyhan Yalcindag who's human rights association general secretary in Turkey.in April 23rd 2006 he became father. He named his son in Kurdish "Mir-zan-yar"(Mirzanyar)has three meanings.(which means the person of love, courage, and knowledge. He is the most popular Kurdish politician in turkey. He has been threatened on numerous occasions by the Turkish government, and nationalist groups in turkey.[1]
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of October 1, 2006.
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