Mehdi Zana


Mehdi Zana is a former Kurdish politician from Turkey.

Biography

Zana started to work as a tailor in Silvan after he graduated from elementary school. In 1963 he became a member of Workers Party of Turkey. Two years later he became the head of the party's Silvan branch.
In December 1977 he was elected as the first independent socialist mayor of Diyarbakır. As mayor he engaged with other Kurds in the aim to foment a transnational aid network. He encouraged the use of Kurdish language in the city council and the municipality. He undertook various trips to Sweden, France and Germany and in 1979 several socialist-run cities in France sent fifteen trucks and buses to Diyarbakir as gift. After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état he was imprisoned until April 1991. After his release he went to France for medical treatment until February 1992. He was imprisoned again between 1994 and 1995. He was imprisoned for 16 years during his life. After his release in 1995, he went to receive the Sakharov Prize in 1996 on behalf of his imprisoned wife, Leyla Zana. Zana and then lived in Sweden and Germany, before at last returning to Turkey in 2004.
After his incarceration he refused to speak Turkish again and only spoke in his native Kurdish language.
Mehdi Zana has been married to politician Leyla Zana since 1975 and the couple has two children.