Mahmut Alınak

Mahmut Alınak
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office
1987 – 17 March 1994
ConstituencyKars (1987)
Şırnak (1991)
Personal details
Born1952 (age 72–73)
Digor
CitizenshipTurkish
Political partyDemocracy Party Democratic Society Party
Alma materAnkara University

Mahmut Alınak (born 1952, Digor, Kars Province), is a Turkish lawyer, author and politician, of Kurdish origin, and a former parliamentary deputy.

Career

Alınak is a graduate of Ankara University's law faculty.[1] In the 1987 Turkish general election he was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), representing Kars province.[2] In November 1989 he was expelled from the SHP together with six other Kurdish MPs for having attended a Kurdish conference in Paris.[3] In the 1991 Turkish general election he was re-elected to parliament, this time representing Şırnak province,[4] and later joining others in the new Democracy Party (DEP). He was one of six DEP deputies (amongst them Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle and Ahmet Türk)[5] whose parliamentary immunity was removed in 1994 to enable prosecution for alleged promotion of Kurdish separatism. He was sentenced to three years and six months for separatist propaganda in December 1994.[6]

In September 1997 Alınak published a novel, Şiro'nun Ateşi ("The Heat of Şiro") based on the real events of the village of Ormaniçi in the Güçlükonak district of the province of Şırnak, where villagers were mistreated by state security and tried unsuccessfully to obtain justice. The book was seized and banned, which the European Court of Human Rights ruled a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2005.[7]

He was later the local chairman in Kars for the Democratic Society Party (DTP),[1] and was an independent candidate associated with the party in the 2007 general elections, but failed to enter parliament.[8] In 2008 he withdrew from a contest in which Ahmet Türk became co-leader of the party, saying he did not want to run against his friend.[9]

In May 2007 Alınak was sentenced to 10 months in prison under Article 301, for his remarks about the Şemdinli incident, in which he described Parliament and the General Staff of Turkey as doing the bidding of the Counter-Guerrilla in protecting those responsible.[10] In 2009 he was sentenced to five months of planting and caring for 500 trees (or else 11 months in prison) for insulting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.[11] In December 2010 he was sentenced to 14 months in prison for insulting police officers (Article 125 of the TCK), for his remarks about the torture of a person in Kars.[12][13]

In December 2011 he was one of many arrested in relation to the Kurdish organization Koma Civakên Kurdistan.[14] He was held in the Kandıra F Type prison[15] and released in July 2012.[16] In February 2020 he was arrested again and in charged with membership in a terrorist organization and writing a book about a victim of the Cizre basement massacre and donating the revenue of the book to the family of the victim.[17] It was his 10th arrest in his lifetime amongst other indictments.[16] On 13 May 2020 he was released with an electronic tracking device, which was removed in July.[18] He was again shortly detained and questioned for insulting the President in October 2020.[18]

Books

  • Parlamentodan 9. koğuşa: 1, Tila Yayınevi, 1994
  • HEP, DEP ve devlet: Parlamento'dan 9. koğuşa-2, Kaynak Yayınları, 1996
  • Nazo: roman, Berfin Yayınları, 1998
  • Ateşte yıkanmak: roman, Berfin Yayınları, 2003
  • Tarihin çarmıhında "güneş ülkesi", Jan Yayınevi, 2010
  • Şiro'nun ateşi ("The Heat of Şiro"), Jan Yayınevi, 2011
  • Köpekler Manifestosu ("Dogs' Manifestation"), Jan Yayınları 2012,
  • Mehmet Tunç ve Bêkes ("Mehmet Tunç and Bêkes(the man with no friends)"), CHA Yayınevi, 2017

References

  1. ^ a b Bianet, 26 April 2012, Kandıra'dan "Köpekler Manifestosu" Çıktı
  2. ^ "Kars SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  3. ^ Whitman, Lois (1990). Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Kurds of Turkey : an Update. Human Rights Watch. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-929692-63-0.
  4. ^ "Şırnak SEÇİM SONUÇLARI". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  5. ^ Abdulla, Jamal Jalal (2012-02-07). The Kurds: A Nation on the Way to Statehood. AuthorHouse. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-4678-7972-9.
  6. ^ European Court of Human Rights, 26 November 1997, SAKIK AND OTHERS v. TURKEY (87/1996/706/898-903)
  7. ^ European Court of Human Rights, 29 June 2005, Alinak v. Turkey: Application No: 40287/98
  8. ^ demokrathaber.net, 19 August 2011, Mahmut Alınak, BDP Genel Başkanlığı'na aday
  9. ^ Hurriyet Daily News, 21 July 2008, DTP engages in self-criticism, elects moderate Türk as leader
  10. ^ Today's Zaman, 7 May 2007, Former deputy Mahmut Alınak sentenced under Article 301 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine,
  11. ^ Today's Zaman, 21 June 2009, Probation becomes an effective instrument for forestation
  12. ^ Turkish Human Rights Association, BİA Haber Merkezi, 23 December 2010, “‘İşkence Hayvansı bir Uygulama’ Demek Suç Oldu!”
  13. ^ Bianet, 3 May 2011, Anti-Terror Law Took the Lead in 2010
  14. ^ Hurriyet Daily News, 8 December 2011, Former MP arrested in KCK case
  15. ^ ETHA, http://www.etha.com.tr/Haber/2012/01/26/guncel/hep-dep-ve-devlet-hem-yasakli-hem-degil/[dead link‍]
  16. ^ a b "Life sentence sought for Kurdish politician Mahmut Alınak on dubious charges". www.duvarenglish.com. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  17. ^ "Kurdish politician, writer Mahmut Alınak behind bars for 10th time". www.duvarenglish.com. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  18. ^ a b "Kurdish politician Mahmut Alınak briefly detained on charges of 'insulting' Erdoğan". www.duvarenglish.com. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-12-29.