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Bekir Kaya (*1977) is a kurdish politician of the Party DBP. He is married to Asli Kaya and father of 2 children.
Education and professional career
Kaya studied at the faculty of Law at Dicle University and graduated 1999. Kaya began to work as a lawyer in Van in the year 2001. In Van he was elected deputy chair of the Van Bar Association. One of the main issues Mr. Kaya focused on was litigation of legal cases opened by ten thousands of Kurdish families who were forced to migrate from their villages as a result of counterinsurgency measures by the Turkish security forces.
Political career and prosecution
In 2009, Kaya was elected as the mayor of Van with 53,5 popular vote. Kaya was arrested over allegations of “being member of terrorist organization” on the 7th June 2012. 10 days after he got suspended from his post as mayor of Van. In April 2013 was released pending trial and reinstated as mayor of Van. The lawsuit continued after his release and he was sentenced to 15 years in June 2016. Kaya was found not guilty by the Supreme Court in June 2017. He got re-elected in the communal elections 2014 with 53.1% of the votes. Kaya represented the Van Metropolitan Municipality as World Council member of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). On the 16th November he was dismissed as Mayor of Van and the administration of the Van Municipality was turned over to a trustee appointed by the Interior Ministry. He was accused of neglecting fire, cleaning and transport services as protests in support of the resistance against the Islamic State in Kobane took place. The next day, on the 17th November Kaya got detained and presented with several charges against him. One charge was that he has erected a PKK martyr`s memorial site in the Van cemetery, because several kurdish fighters who died in the fight against the Islamic State in Kobane and who were from the city of Van, were buried in the cemetery of Van. An other charge presented against him was the construction of a bridge beside an other bridge to the Çatak disrict. By the prosecution, this was seen as a logistical support for the PKK. In September 2018 the previous ruling of the Supreme court was overruled and he got sentenced to 8 years and 9 months in prison. In October 2018 he got sentenced to an other 8 years and 3 months for the charges brought against him since November 2016. He is imprisoned in the Silivri Prison.
References
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