Akın Birdal

Akın Birdal (born 2 January 1948, Niğde, Niğde Province, Turkey

Education and early life Birdal is an agricultural engineer by training, graduating from Ankara University Faculty of Agriculture, Soil Science Department. He went on to do a master's degree in business at the Gazi University from where he graduated in 1973. As a university student, he was involved in several agricultural associations. On 3 September 1996 he was detained accused of collaborating with the PKK for being part of a delegation who wanted to negotiate the release of Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK. Eight captive soldiers were released. In December 1996 he was acquitted from the charges of collaborating with the PKK. In 1997 Birdal and others were investigated or detained for supporting a peace initiative for the Kurdish Turkish conflict called the Musa Anter peace train. In December the same year Birdal was acquitted from the charges relating to his support for the peace train. On 12 May 1998, Birdal barely survived an assassination attempt, when two assailants fired 13 shots at him in the office of the association. In 1999 he was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment under Article 312 (of which he served 14 months) for speeches made in 1995 and 1996. In his speeches, he was in favor of a peaceful solution in the conflict between Turkey and the PKK. He was released on medical reasons on 25 September 1999, but on 30 March 2000 a court ruled he must serve the rest of the sentence in prison. In the year 1999 he was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. In 2007 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the case breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as Article 6.1 (right to a fair trial).

In 2002 Birdal was one of the founders of the Socialist Democratic Party, becoming its chairman, but stepped down after becoming Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights.

In July 2007, he stood as an independent candidate in the Turkish parliamentary elections and entered the Turkish Parliament, representing Diyarbakır. His candidacy was supported by the Thousand Hopes Candidates alliance. but he was not elected. Later in 2009, he joined the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Awards Jaime Brunet Prize for Human Rights (1999)