Şerafettin Elçi was a Kurdish lawyer, politician, government minister and statesman in Turkey. He was one of the pioneers of Kurdish politics in Turkey.
Early years
Şerafettin Elçi was born in Cizre, Şırnak Province on March 14, 1938. He finished primary education in his hometown. After completing secondary education in Mardin, he studied law at Ankara University, Law School. During his university years, he was tried in the "Case of Kurdish Propagandists", so-called "Case of the 49s" under accusation of making Kurdish propaganda. After graduation, he pursued a career as a lawyer in Cizre. Following the 1971 Turkish coup d'état, Şerafettin Elçi was tried along with the members of the "Turkey Kurdistan Democratic Party" at the Diyarbakır Military Court, and was incarcerated in the Diyarbakır Military Prison for about eight months.
Political career
Following the general elections held on June 5, 1977, Elçi entered the parliament as a deputy of Mardin Province. He was then among the eleven independent politicians, who left Süleyman Demirel's Justice Party and was offered on December 22, 1977 a minister seat in the cabinet to be newly formed by the Republican People's Party leader Bülent Ecevit in return of his acceptance to back up a motion of no confidence to overturn Demirel's cabinet. He was appointed Minister of Public Works in the Ecevit cabinet serving from January 5, 1978 to November 12, 1979. After the military coup staged on September 12, 1980, Elçi was among the many arrested politicians. He was tried for his words "There are Kurds in Turkey, I am also a Kurd." he said during his term as minister. He was sentenced to two years three months in prison by the Ankara Martial Law Caourt. He was also tried by the Supreme Court for allegations of "hiring some Kurds", and was convicted to two years and four months in prison. He spent more than thirty months in custody. As a result of these punishments, some of his civil and political rights, such as to pursue his lawyer career or to return to politics, were suspended for a span of ten years. In 1982, Şerafettin Elçi was put on trial before the Supreme Court for charges on bribery and abuse of power during his office term as government minister. He was acquitted on charges of bribery, but sentenced to two years four months imprisonment for abuse of power. In 1992, Elçi established with 98 Kurdish intellectuals the "Kurdish Rights and Freedom Foundation", and became its president of the board of trustees. After a long judicial struggle against the authorities, he succeeded in 1995 in getting the organization registered as the "Kurdish Culture and Research Foundation". Through this action, an organization with the word "Kurdish" in its title became official for the first time in the history of Turkish Republic. Elçi founded with a group of friends the "Kurdish Democratic Platform" in 1994, and served for its spokesman. The organization was engaged in forming the "Democratic Mass Party" , which was established on December 19, 2006. Şerafettin Elçi entered the parliament again as an independent deputy from Diyarbakır Province following the general elections held on June 12, 2011. In the beginning of the parliamentary term, he refused to take the oath of office, which is required for all newly elected parliament members to take in a parliamentary session before taking office. He stated that "It is not possible to take the oath of office. It is prepared in a racist, fascist concept and in a Turkish chauvinist mentality. It is never an oath of office we can accept, appropriate and abide by our political struggle. We don't want to provoke a crisis. We will repeat the text, however we can not abide".
Şerafttin Elçi died on December 25, 2012 at a hospital in Ankara, where he was treated for cancer. After a memorial before the parliament building, his corpse was taken firstly to Diyarbakır, and then was buried in Cizre in a religious funeral attended by thousands. Şerafettin Elçi was survived by his wife Fatma Elçi and seven children. His daughter Evin married to the successful football managerMustafa Denizli on July 28, 2010.
