Mehmet Yavuz (b. 1973;

Kâhta Kâhta ( ku, Kolîk, Ottoman Turkish: کولک / ''Kölük'') is a city in Adıyaman Province of Turkey. It is the seat of Kâhta District.

, d. 9 August 2019), was a Kurdish politician and teacher in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

who led the Kurdish Islamist

Free Cause Party The Free Cause Party (Turkish: ''Hür Dava Partisi'', abbreviated as HÜDA PAR, ) is Sunni Kurdish Islamist political party in Turkey. Origin Following the decision to end armed struggle in 2002, activists of the Hizbullah's Menzil group foun ...

from May 2018 until 7 October 2018.

Biography

Born in 1973 in the town of

Kâhta Kâhta ( ku, Kolîk, Ottoman Turkish: کولک / ''Kölük'') is a city in Adıyaman Province of Turkey. It is the seat of Kâhta District.

Adıyaman Province Adıyaman Province ( tr, , ku, ) is a province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The capital is Adıyaman. The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has a Kurdish majority. Adıyaman Province was part of the p ...

, he graduated high school in the town before moving to

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...

to study at the

Selcuk University Selcuk may refer to: * Selçuk (name) * Seljuk (died c. 1038), leader of the Seljuk Turks ** Seljuq dynasty, the dynasty founded by Seljuk ** Seljuq Empire, the medieval empire founded and ruled by the dynasty ** Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, the medi ...

Faculty of Education. He subsequently worked as a teacher. In the 2000s, he was imprisoned for two years and later worked as a teacher in

Şanlıurfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ext ...

. He began his political life by writing for Doğruhaber and serving as the Deputy Chairman and Spokesperson for Hüda-Par. In 2015, he criticized President Erdoğan for stating that no

Kurdish issue Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...

existed in the country. Yavuz pointed at the fact that Kurdish was classified an 'unknown language' when spoken at the

Grand National Assembly Great National Assembly or Grand National Assembly may refer to: * Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, an assembly of Romanian delegates that declared the unification of Transylvania and Romania * Great National Assembly (Socialist Republic of R ...

, lack of mother tongue education in Kurdish and stated that the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

was fascist. I 2018, he criticized the constitution again. Yavuz died from

kidney cancer Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is a group of cancers that starts in the kidney. Symptoms may include blood in the urine, lump in the abdomen, or back pain. Fever, weight loss, and tiredness may also occur. Complications can include ...

on 9 August 2019 in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

Electoral history

Yavuz ran unsuccessfully as an independent in 2015 in the electoral district of Şanlıurfa and received 0.9% of the vote share.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yavuz, Mehmet 1973 births 2019 deaths Free Cause Party politicians Turkish Kurdish politicians Selçuk University alumni People from Kâhta