Hüseyin Aygün

Hüseyin Aygün (born 20 October 1970, Tunceli) is a Turkish lawyer and politician of Zaza Alevi origin.^[1]

Hüseyin Aygün worked as a lawyer in his hometown after graduating from the Faculty of Law at Ankara University. As of 2011, he is a CHP Member of Parliament representing Tunceli.

He is married and has two children.

Hüseyin Aygün is the writer of important books such as Dersim 1938 ve Zorlu İskan (Dersim 1938 and the Forced Resettlement); 0.0.1938 Resmiyet ve Hakikat (0.0.1938 Formality and Reality); Dersim 1938 ve Hacı Hıdır Ataç’ın Defteri (Dersim 1938 and the Notebook of Hacı Hıdır Ataç); Fişlemenin Kısa Tarihi (The Brief History of Tagging) and his book in Zazaki language Eve tarixe ho teri Amaene.

Controversy in his political party

Aygün made statements about his party's responsibility on the Dersim Massacre and later on the status of Alevism, causing controversy with his fellow deputies and the party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Due to those statements completely contradicting the policy of his party, some members of CHP requested to expel him from the party.^[2]

Kidnapping

Aygün was kidnapped by PKK militants around 19:00 hours local time on 12 August 2012 as he was returning from a visit in Ovacık, Tunceli accompanied with a newspaper reporter and his aide. The militants stopped his car on the highway and forced the passengers to get off. His companies were released, however he was dragged away into woodland by threateaning him to kill him at site if he would resist.^[2] Aygün was freed unharmed on 14 August 2012.^[3]

References