Kemal Burkay (1937, Kızılkale, Mazgirt, Tunceli) is a Kurdish writer and politician.

Biography

He attended his primary education in Tunceli and graduated from Ankara University, Law School in 1960.

Political career

In 1965 he joined the Workers' Party of Turkey. Due to an article published in 1966, he was jailed. Following the coup d'état in 1971 most of the Kurds who were politically involved were detained. Burkay was imprisoned for one year, and after a new warrant for his arrest was issued, Burkay went into exile to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1972. In 1974, Burkay was involved prominently in the establishment of the Socialist Party of Kurdistan (TKPS) which published the magazine '' Özgürlük Yolu (Riya Azadi)'' between 1975 and 1979. ''Özgürlük Yolu'' was to become an influential magazine for the Kurdish politicians at the time. In 1980, just ahead of the

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

of the military, he left

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and settled in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In 1993, then the head of the Socialist Party of Kurdistan, he was interviewed for 18 days together with

Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He ...

by the journalist Oral Çalışlar. The interview was then published in the newspaper ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...

'' and later in booklet form, which caused some controversy in Turkish politics as the publication of the booklet was banned. Burkay supported the

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

announced by the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK) on 17 March 1993. He signed an agreement for future cooperation with Öcalan on the 19 March 1993. In 2011, he returned from his exile in Sweden after the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) improved the situation for the Kurdish movement, and in 2012 he was elected as the president of HAK-PAR, a party which advocates for the improvement of the situation of the Kurdish population in Turkey.

Personal life

He is married and father to 5 children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkay, Kemal Turkish Kurdish politicians Living people 1937 births People from Mazgirt Kurdish writers Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Exiled Turkish politicians