User:PanchoS/Turgut Öker

Turgut Öker (born 1961) is a Turkish-German publicist and leading Alevi representative. He From 1999 until 2012 he was chairman of the Alevi Community Germany.

In the June 2015 general election he was elected a member of the Turkish parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), but lost his mandate in the subsequent snap election in November.

Alevi movement in Germany
In the early 1990s, Öker was employed at Hamburg's Alevi Culture Center (HAKM), one of the most active centers amongst the more secular and progressive, even leftist faction of Alevi organizations. From spring 1992 on, he participated in the first meetings to discuss the possibility of a single national Alevi federation, together with the more religious faction that was already organized in the "Federation of Alevi Communities" (Alevi Birlikleri Federasyonu. The talks however didn't immediately come to fruition.

Following the July 1993 Sivas massacre, Öker committed himself to organizing a large public demonstration in Cologne. Instead of the expected 3,000 people, 60,000 came. The demonstration turned the events in Sivas into a watershed moment for German Alevis, as within a year, more than a hundred new Alevi associations were founded all over Germany. The demonstration's success cleared the way for a single Alevi national federation, and made Öker a leading person within the federation.

German Federation of Alevi Communities (Almanya Alevi Birlikleri Federasyonu, AABF) In January 1999, Öker succeeded Ali Kılıç, who ran for a seat in the Turkish general election as chairman of the AABF, later renamed Alevi Community Germany.