Sırrı Sakık Explained

Office:Member of Parliament
Parliamentarygroup1:DTP
Office1:Member of Parliament
Birth Date:1 August 1957
Birth Place:Yörecik, Muş
Parliamentarygroup2:BDP
Constituency2:Muş
Termend2:2014
Termstart2:2011
Constituency1:Muş
Sırrı Sakık
Termend1:2011
Termstart1:2007
Termend:1994
Termstart:1991
Constituency:Muş
Caption:Sırrı Sakık
Parliamentarygroup:SHP
DEP
Office2:Member of Parliament

Sırrı Sakık (born 1 August 1957, Yörecik, Muş Province, Turkey) is a Turkish-Kurdish journalist and politician. He is a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Mayor of Ağrı.

He was elected in the 2023 Turkish parliamentary election.

Background

Sakık is the brother of former Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commander Şemdin Sakık. His brother Abdul Samed Sakık, a Democracy Party (DEP) politician who was the party's chair in Gaziantep, was assassinated on 2 October 1993.[1] Sakık was involved in the tourism sector and was also a journalist for Cumhuriyet and Vatan.[2]

Political career

Sakık was first elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1991 on a ticket of the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP).[3] He was a founding member of the Democracy Party (DEP) in 1993, and was one of the DEP deputies sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in prison for links with Kurdish militants, after their parliamentary immunity was revoked.[4] He was later released, and played a role in the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), being arrested after a 1996 incident in which masked men dropped the Turkish flag at its party congress and raised the PKK flag (Sakık had walked out in protest, but later said all flags should be respected).[5] [6]

He was a founding member of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2005[7] and entered parliament again in 2007, technically running as an independent.[8] He was deputy chairman of the DTP.[9]

He was re-elected in 2011 for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) (again, technically as an independent), after the DTP was banned in 2009.[10] [11] In 2012 he displayed a bullet in parliament, which he said had been sent to him as a death threat.[12] On 15 September 2012 his son Sedar Sakık committed suicide by jumping from the balcony of his house.[13] In the 2014 local elections he was elected as mayor of Ağrı. In March 2017 he was suspended from his office as Mayor by the Turkish Minister of the Interior.[14] A trustee was appointed instead for Ağrı Municipality.

Political positions

He supported women's participation in politics and opposed the electoral process which included a 10% threshold for parties which forced politicians of the DTP to present themselves as independent candidates.[15] He also supported a Kurdish participation in a political and democratic environment.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Disappearances and political killings: Human Rights Crisis of the 1990s. A manual for action.. 7 May 2021. Amnesty International.
  2. Web site: Trustee Appointed to Ağrı Municipality, Sırrı Sakık Discharged. 5 March 2020.
  3. Web site: Muş SEÇİM SONUÇLARI. secim.haberler.com. 2020-03-05.
  4. [Turkish Daily News]
  5. [Turkish Daily News]
  6. [Turkish Daily News]
  7. [Turkish Daily News]
  8. Web site: Muş SEÇİM SONUÇLARI. secim.haberler.com. 2020-03-05.
  9. News: Pro-Kurd party unveils strategy for Turkey vote. 2007-05-09. Reuters. 2020-03-05. en.
  10. kimkimdir.gen.tr, Sırrı Sakık (1957 - ....)
  11. tbmm.gov.tr, Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi 23. Dönem Milletvekili
  12. [Hurriyet Daily News]
  13. Web site: Arşivlenmiş kopya. 4 January 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130115120420/http://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/776617-bdpli-sirri-sakikin-oglu-intihar-etti. 15 January 2013. live.
  14. Web site: Ağrı Co-mayor Sırrı Sakık suspended. ANF News. en. 2019-03-28.
  15. News: 2007-07-30. DTP deputies complete MP registration. Today's Zaman. dead. 2008-08-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20090407054058/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=117937&bolum=103. 2009-04-07.