Abdülmelik Fırat

Abdülmelik Fırat (* 1934 in the province of Erzurum, † 28 September 2009) was a Kurdish politician from Turkey.

He was a grandson of Sheikh Said, under whose leadership in 1925 broke the Sheikh Said rebellion against the young Turkish government to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His father was the nephew of Sheikh Said's Sahabettin Sheikh and his mother the daughter of Sheikh Said's Aysan Hanim. After the suppression of the uprising Abdulmeliks family was deported to western Turkey. 1929 the family could return to their homes with the elimination of the state of emergency, but their property was expropriated. In 1935, the family was deported again. With the advent of multi-party system and the amendment of the colonization law ( iskan kanunu ) in 1947, the family had returned to their homes.

In 1957 he was a deputy of the Democrat Parti Province Erzurum. To this end, his age was changed to 7 years upwards, so that he could be elected. During the military coup in 1960, he was among the 500 persons accused of Yassıada processes the youngest. Against him the death penalty was imposed, but which was then changed to a prison sentence. Of this he spent 1.5 years in a prison in Kayseri.

In 1991 he was a member of the True Path Party for Erzurum, but then resigned because of their Kurdish policy. He then founded later, the HAK -PAR ("Party of Law and Freedoms"), which advocates for autonomy for the Kurds in Turkey. For years he was its chairman. Abdulmelik Fırat spoke alongside Kurdish and Turkish, Arabic, Persian, English and French.

Abdulmelik Fırat died in late September 2009 to the consequences of multiple myeloma.