- Medet Serhat
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Medet Serhat (1943, Iğdır-12 December 1994, Istanbul) was a Turkish lawyer of Kurdish descent, from an aristocratic family of Igdir branch of widely spread Retkan tribe. He was involved in the Susurluk scandal. He was a prominent member of Istanbul Bar Association, which he was also elected as a Principal Member of Dicipline Committee of Board of Directors of Istanbul Bar Association in 20.12.1975 from Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu (Modern Lawyers Group). Medet Serhat, was known for his humanitarian behaviour between people, rather than completely favouring Kurds, and having support of both Kurds and Turks from different political points. He have represented many Kurdish and Turkish political and business figureheads, most notably amongst them is Behçet Cantürk, who was also killed 1994.
He was born in Iğdır (then part of Kars Province) to İsa (father) and Bahar (mother) Serhat.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University.
He was kept in prison for 13 months in connection with a Kurdish case he was involved in 1959, and he was released subsequently. When the Supreme Court quashed the verdict, he was sentenced in a re-trial to 10 months 20 days in prison.
He was prosecuted without arrest in 1963 accused of having disseminated Kurdish propaganda in the journal “Denge,” which he published in İstanbul.
In 1965, he was sentenced to 1 year 4 months in prison for establishing a Kurdish organization.
In 1975, he was elected Principal Member of Dicipline Committee of Board of Directors of Istanbul Bar Association from Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu (Modern Lawyers Group), winning 396 votes of members.
In 1977, he attended the International Lawyers Meeting in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
In 1978, he was elected Istanbul Representative of "İttihad-i Vatani Kürdistan“ (Union of the Kurdish Nation) which was active abroad parallel to Jalal Talabani.
He was a candidate for Kars from the list of the CHP in the local elections held in 1979.
In 1980, he joined the TKP (Communist Party of Turkey) as a provisional member.
He was detained on 27.01.1981 on charges of disseminating communist and Kurdish propaganda and was released on 29.01.
In 1982, he joined the defense in a PKK trial that was launched in Erzurum. As well as, the trials in Istanbul and Diyarbakir.
In the same year, he was arrested for membership of the Executive Board of the Peace Association.
He was released in November 1983. In 1984, he was acted as the lawyer of Behçet Cantürk, who was involved in drug trafficking, for only one case, and although Behçet Cantürk had another lawyer officially, Medet Serhat always thought to be his lawyer.
He was among the founding members of the “Kurdish Rights and Freedoms Foundation,” which was established in İstanbul in 1990 with the aim of establishing the Kurdish National Union, and in this respect establishing a national assembly and a Kurdish political party on a legal platform.
In 1991, he was among the lawyers who clients among the defendants of the “Peace Committee Association” trial.
He was among the persons who signed the declaration of “Call for the Democracy Assembly,” which was written during the General Assembly of the Democracy Party (DEP) held in Ankara on 18 and 19 December 1993.
He was among the lawyers who defended MPs from the defunct DEP in the trial launched against them at Ankara SSC in October 1994.
He was killed along with his driver outside his house in Erenköy, İstanbul, on 12.11.1994. His wife barely survived 14 bullet wounds, and in all her statements she could give up the details or her husband's murderer, and her attacker, but could not give up any facial details till she have seen Nurullah Tevfik Agansoy on television.
Medet Serhat's murder at 1994 instantly declared as an Extrajudicial killing, and its still unsolved. Extrajudicial killings were a tool used by Turkish Deep state between 1992 to 1994. Medet Serhat's murder had a huge impact of stopping it more at least more Kurdish public figures as approximately 5.000 people both Turkish and Kurdish, marched at his funeral. His colleague members from the Istanbul Bar Association attended with their courthouse robes.
His name was mentioned as an organized murder by the Deep State in Susurluk Scandal, and now his family ask from the court to be part of victims from the Ergenekon (organization) due to the confessions made by the organization members.
References
1. http://webarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/1998/11/03/75736.asp
4. http://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/559011-medet-serhat-cinayeti-ergenekonla-birlessin
5. http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/katili-ekranda-gordum.htm
6. http://www.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=nuce&nuceID=53060
- "1998 Report" (PDF). Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. http://www.tihv.org.tr/tihve/data/Yayinlar/Human_Rights_Reports/Ra1998HumanRigthsReport.pdf. (contains the Susurluk reports, and material on the Counter-Guerrilla)
- Official reports (DOC), hosted by Can Dündar. (Turkish)
Categories:- People from Iğdır
- Kurdish activists
- Turkish lawyers
- Istanbul University alumni
- Turkish murder victims
- Turkish people of Kurdish descent
- Kurdish politicians
- Assassinated Turkish people
- 1943 births
- 1994 deaths
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