Fehmi Demir
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Tarsus, Mersin Province, Turkey
Fehmi Demir | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader of the Rights and Freedoms Party | |
| In office 26 October 2014 – 25 October 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Kemal Burkay |
| Succeeded by | Refik Karakoç |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 January 1957 Yeniceoba, Turkey |
| Died | 25 October 2015 (aged 58) Tarsus, Mersin Province, Turkey |
| Political party | People's Labour Party (HEP) 1990-93) Democracy Party (1993-94) Democracy and Change Party (1994-95) Democracy and Peace Party (1996-2002) Rights and Freedoms Party (2002-15) |
| Alma mater | Eskişehir Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences |
Fehmi Demir (2 January 1957 – 25 October 2015) was a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin who served as the leader of the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR) from October 2014 until his death a year later in October 2015. He advocated a federalist agenda, in favour of splitting Turkey into several federal states in order to give the Kurdish dominated regions more political autonomy.
On 25 October 2015, just six days before the November 2015 general election, Demir was killed in a traffic accident while travelling on a motorway through Tarsus in Mersin Province. His party had fielded candidates in 78 electoral districts for the election, while Demir had been the HAK-PAR's first-preference candidate in Diyarbakır.
Fehmi Demir was born on 2 January 1957 in the Kurdish town of Yeniceoba (İncov) in the district of Cihanbeyli, Konya Province. He was the eldest of 6 children. He was educated at the Yeniceoba town school and completed his middle and high school education in Cihanbeyli. He graduated from the Eskişehir Commercial Sciences Academy Faculty of Economics, which would later become the Anadolu University. During his student years, he was active in pro-Kurdish university and political societies, also taking up roles in the Eskişehir Halkevleri.[1]