Ertuğrul Kürkçü
Ertuğrul Kürkçü (born 5 May 1948) is a Turkish politician, socialist activist and the current Honorary President of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as of 22 June 2014. He previously served as the co-chair of the HDP between October 2013 and June 2014 with co-chair Sebahat Tuncel. Kürkçü and Tuncel also served as co-spokespersons for the Peoples' Democratic Congress between 2011-16. Tuncel stepped down on 23 Jan. 2016 and was replaced by Gülistan Koçyiğit. Kürkçü was elected in the 2015 June and November general elections consecutively as a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Member of Parliament for the Aegean port city of Izmir. In the 7 June 2015 elections the HDP entered in the parliament with 80 deputies. In the second round of elections on 1 November called by the President upon the parliament's failure in establishing a coalition government in due time, the HDP preserved its place as the third biggest party in the parliament but lost 2,5 percent of votes and 21 seats after a tense election campaign marred by violent attacks against the HDP premises and outdoor activities what caused the lives of at least 150 party members and affiliates. Kürkçü represents his party also in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Kürkçü had earlier entered in the TBMM as an independent Member of Parliament for Mersin in the 2011 general election.
Kürkçü was born in Bursa and was one of the activists of the "Generation '68'" student movement alongside Mahir Çayan and Deniz Gezmiş. In Oct. 1970 then the head of the Socialists Association of the Middle East Technical University (METU), he was elected as the President of the Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation (DEV-GENÇ). In 1972, Kürkçü joined the armed resistance against the military takeover and took part in an operation designed by Mahir Çayan to kidnap three NATO technicians based in the Black Sea district of Ünye for bargaining for the release off death row of Deniz Gezmiş and other activists who were condemned to death under the 1971 Turkish military memorandum. On Mar. 30, 1972 the Turkish Gendarmerie and special police forces pounded the house in Kızıldere with mortars and all the activists apart from Kürkçü were killed. He was tried under Martial law and sentenced to death, but after the general amnesty in 1974 his sentence was converted to 30 years. He was released in 1986 after 14 years in prison. While in prison he translated several books, including Karl Marx's biography, into Turkish.
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