Ufuk Uras
Mehmet Ufuk Uras (Turkish pronunciation: [uˈfuk uˈɾas]; born January 4, 1959, in Üsküdar district of İstanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish libertarian socialist politician and economist who became the first socialist independent candidate elected to the Turkish parliament since the 1960s in 2007.
Biography and political career
Uras graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Istanbul University and began working as an academician at the same institution. A former leader of the now-defunct University Lecturers' Union (Öğretim Elemanları Sendikası), he was elected the chairman of Freedom and Solidarity Party in 1996. Uras resigned from the leadership after the 2002 general election. He became the party chairman again in 2007.
2007 elections and after
Uras ran a successful campaign as a "common candidate of the Left", standing on the independents' ticket, backed by Kurdish-based Democratic Society Party and several left-wing, environmentalist and pro-peace groups in the 2007 general election, polling 81,486 votes, which is approximately 4 per cent of the vote in his constituency.[1]
He was removed from his post in 2009 as the party leader, when his opponent Hayri Kozanoğlu was elected. He resigned from the Freedom and Solidarity Party on 19 June 2009.[2]
After the Democratic Society Party was dissolved in December 2009 and two of its MPs were banned from politics for five years, he joined forces with the remaining Kurdish MPs in the Peace and Democracy Party group, giving them the twenty seats necessary to retain their position as a parliamentary party. [3]
Post-parliamentarian political life
Uras did not run in the 2011 general election. On 25 November 2012, he became a co-founder and member of social liberal Greens and the Left Party of the Future, founded as a merger of the Greens and the Equality and Democracy Party.
Personal life
Uras is married to ballet dancer and choreographer Zeynep Tanbay. Uras has a son named Deniz from a former marriage.
Books
- ÖDP Söyleşileri, 1999, Istanbul: Alan. ISBN 975-7414-77-8
- Başka Bir Siyaset Mümkün, 2003, Istanbul: İthaki. ISBN 975-8725-79-3
- İdeolojilerin Sonu mu?, 2004, Istanbul: Çiviyazıları. ISBN 975-8663-66-6
- Sezgiciliğin Sonu mu?, 2005, Istanbul: Devin. ISBN 975-6472-16-2
- Siyaset Yazıları, 2005, Istanbul: Alan. ISBN 975-7414-95-6
- Alternatif Siyaset Arayışları, 2005, Istanbul: İthaki. ISBN 975-273-148-1
- "Kurtuluş Savaşı'nda Sol", 2007, İstanbul: Altın Kitaplar. ISBN 978-975-21-0836-3
- "Sokaktan Parlamentoya Özgürlükçü Siyaset İçin Notlar", 2008, İstanbul: Su Yayınları. ISBN 978-975-6709-67-2
- "Söz Meclisten Dışarı", 2010, Ankara: Penta Yayınları. ISBN 978-975-01020-7-3
- "Meclis Notları", 2013, İstanbul: Pencere Yayınları. ISBN 978-605-4049-60-8
References
- ↑ "Supreme Election Committee"
- ↑ Ufus Uras has resigned from Freedom and Democracy Party
- ↑ "Pro-Kurdish deputies of banned DTP to stay in Turkish Parliament as BDP members". Nationalia. 2009-12-13. Retrieved 2010-05-21.