Mehdi Zana

Mehdi Zana (20 December 1940 – 29 August 2026) was a Turkish author and Kurdish politician. He was a prominent Kurdish political activist and a mayor of Diyarbakır. Following the coup de état in 1980 he was imprisoned for more than ten years.

Early life and education Born in Silvan, Turkey, on 20 December 1940, Zana went to the local elementary school but did not finish high school. He began work as a tailor at a shop owned by a prominent Kurdist intellectual, Niyazi Tatlıcı. The tailor workshop has been described as a sort of a "university" by political activists of the time. Besides he was also involved in the Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths (DDKO). He won against the candidate supported by the TIP and the pro-Kurdish DDKO, Yahya Mehmetoğlu. He was imprisoned again between 1994 and 1995.

Political views 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 Diyarbakır as gift. and he acknowledged the Kurdish role in the Armenian genocide.

Personal life and death Mehdi Zana was married to politician Leyla Zana from 1975, and the couple had two children.