Erol Dora

Dora was born 1964 to Enver and Kespu Dora,{{cite web |title=CV of Erol Dora |url=https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/milletvekillerimiz_sd.bilgi?p_donem=26&p_sicil=6965 |publisher=Grand National Assembly of Turkey |accessdate=21 November 2015}} a Syriac Orthodox family in the small, all-Christian{{cite web |author=Thomas Seibert |title=Source of Hope for the Christian Minority |work=Qantara.de |url=http://en.qantara.de/content/the-syrian-orthodox-lawyer-erol-dora-source-of-hope-for-the-christian-minority |date=15 June 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122135904/http://en.qantara.de/content/the-syrian-orthodox-lawyer-erol-dora-source-of-hope-for-the-christian-minority |archive-date=22 November 2015 |url-status=dead }} village of Hesena in the Şırnak Province. In the 1980s and 1990s, almost all of them however fled to Istanbul or Western Europe, after the Turkish military forcibly "evacuated" and effectively depopulated thousands of villages. Hassana, where Dora spent his early childhood, was one of these villages abandoned in the 1990s.{{cite web |author=Thomas Seibert |title=Hope is high for man who may become Turkey's first Christian MP for 50 year |work=The National |url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/europe/hope-is-high-for-man-who-may-become-turkeys-first-christian-mp-for-50-year |date=10 June 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015}}

Aged nine, Dora moved to Istanbul, where he attended the Armenian boarding school and orphanage Kamp Armen.{{cite web|title=Historic camp for Armenian orphans to be destroyed for luxury homes |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/national_historic-camp-for-armenian-orphans-to-be-destroyed-for-luxury-homes_379220.html |work=Today's Zaman |date=28 April 2015 |accessdate=21 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121222050/http://www.todayszaman.com/national_historic-camp-for-armenian-orphans-to-be-destroyed-for-luxury-homes_379220.html |archivedate=21 November 2015 }} Following his studies of law at Ankara University, he was drafted to attend his military service in Malatya, but was released early after paying the Bedelli askerlik.

Following his studies, Dora returned to Istanbul practising as a lawyer, often defending Christians in trials.{{cite news |title=A Christian lawyer elected to Parliament: new hope for the country |agency=Agenzia Fides |via=News.va |url=http://www.news.va/en/news/asiaturkey-a-christian-lawyer-elected-to-parliamen |date=14 June 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015 |archive-date=21 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121183052/http://www.news.va/en/news/asiaturkey-a-christian-lawyer-elected-to-parliamen |url-status=dead }} In 2004, he became a founding member{{cite web|title=Türkiye'nin ilk Süryani Milletvekili |trans-title=Turkey's first Süryani Deputy |language=tr |url=http://www.suryaniler.com/haberler.asp?id=774 |date=12 June 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122070655/http://www.suryaniler.com/haberler.asp?id=774 |archivedate=22 November 2015 }} and vice president{{cite book |author=Şeyhmus Diken |title=Türkiye'de Sivil Hayat |trans-title=Civil Society in Turkey |publisher=Sivil Toplum Geliştirme Programı |date=April 2005 |url=http://panel.stgm.org.tr/vera/app/var/files/t/u/turkiyede-sivil-hayat.pdf |language=tr |page=159 ff |access-date=2015-11-21 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044214/http://panel.stgm.org.tr/vera/app/var/files/t/u/turkiyede-sivil-hayat.pdf |url-status=dead }} of the first civic association of Assyrians/Syriacs since the 1980 military coup, the Mesopotamia Culture and Solidarity Association (Mezopotamya Kültür ve Dayanışma Derneği, or MEZODER).{{cite book |author=Naures Atto |title=Hostages in the Homeland, Orphans in the Diaspora |publisher=Leiden University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-8728-148-9 |url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/17919/THESIS-FINAL-ALL-15-Friday.pdf |page=130}}

In the 2011 general election, Dora became an independent candidate for the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc. He was elected in the Mardin constituency to become the first Assyrian member of the Grand National Assembly ever, and the first Christian MP since 1960. Though affiliated with the pro-minority Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), he told the Vatican Insider that he joined Parliament "as a free man" and wouldn't answer to any party.{{cite web |author=Allessandro Speciale |title="The situation for Christians in Turkey has improved" |work=Vatican Insider |url=http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/turchia-turkey-diritti-delle-minoranze-religiose-rights-of-religious-minorities-derechos-minor/ |date=1 August 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} In late 2013, Dora however became one of the forerunner MPs to support the formation of the new Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP),{{cite web |author=Göksel Bozkurt |title=BDP eyes forming alliance with main opposition CHP in Turkish local elections |work=Hürriyet Daily News |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/bdp-eyes-forming-alliance-main-oppositon-chp-in-turkish-local-elections.aspx?pageID=238&nID=56056&NewsCatID=341 |date=11 October 2013 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} which he later joined.

He was reelected in the consecutive Parliamentary Elections of June{{Cite web|title=DARGEÇİT Seçim Sonuçları|url=https://secim.haberler.com/dargecit-secim-sonuclari/|access-date=2021-03-26|website=secim.haberler.com}} and November 2015{{Cite web|title=1 Kasım Mardin seçim sonuçları son dakika|url=https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2015/gunun-icinden/mardin-secim-sonuclari-1-kasim-mardin-secim-sonuclari-son-dakika-970535/|access-date=2021-03-26|website=www.sozcu.com.tr|language=tr}} as a Member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing Mardin for the HDP. In November 2015, Dora and Mithat Sancar joined fellow MPs Gülser Yıldırım and Ali Atalan in their hunger strike to protest the ongoing state of exception curfew in the border town of Nusaybin, where since November 13{{cite web |title=2 HDP deputies go on hunger strike to end days-long Nusaybin curfew |work=Today's Zaman |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/national_2-hdp-deputies-go-on-hunger-strike-to-end-days-long-nusaybin-curfew_404768.html |date=19 November 2015 |accessdate=21 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120205711/http://www.todayszaman.com/national_2-hdp-deputies-go-on-hunger-strike-to-end-days-long-nusaybin-curfew_404768.html |archivedate=20 November 2015 }} and under the pretext of operating against militant YDG-H members, 70% of the neighborhoods have been cut from electricity, 30% from water supply.{{cite web |author=Rifat Başaran |title=Four HDP MPs start curfew hunger strike against Nusaybin curfew |work=Hürriyet Daily News |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/four-hdp-mps-start-curfew-hunger-strike-against-nusaybin-curfew.aspx?pageID=238&nID=91467&NewsCatID=341 |date=21 November 2015 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} On the 17 March 2021, the Turkish state prosecutor before the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court demanding for Dora and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban for political activities.{{Cite web|title=HDP indictment seeks political ban for 687 members, including Demirtaş, Buldan and Sancar|url=https://www.bianet.org/english/politics/241005-hdp-indictment-seeks-political-ban-for-687-members-including-demirtas-buldan-and-sancar|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Bianet}} The lawsuit was filed jointly with the request for a closure of the HDP.

In the long-standing dispute on the Turkish state's confiscation of Assyrian property, Dora, along with various Assyrian diaspora organizations, demands a reversal of the expropriations and a return to the status quo ante. In June 2014, Dora sponsored a parliamentary motion demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the issue, which is also controversial within the Kurdish communities.{{cite book |author=Susanne Güsten |title=The Syriac Property Issue in Tur Abdin |location=Istanbul & Essen |publisher=Sabancı University; Stiftung Mercator Initiative |date=June 2015 |isbn=978-605-4348-97-8 |url=http://ipc.sabanciuniv.edu/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Syriac-Property-Issue-in-Tur-Abdin-Susanne-Gusten.pdf |pages=7; 11}}

Stating that there was still "no rule of law in the region, only the rule of force," he proposed a scholarly commission to settle the land-claims of Syriac and Yezidi minorities. Most of them had emigrated when during the late 1980s "low-density war" thousands of Kurdish and Assyrian villages were forcibly "evacuated" and effectively depopulated, leaving the villagers as refugees in their own land.{{cite web |author=Ali Bariş Kurt |title=Dora: HDP Considering Commission On Syriac And Yezidi Issues |url=https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/dora-hdp-considering-commission-on-syriac-and-yezidi-issues/ |date=1 July 2014 |accessdate=21 November 2015}}

During the PKK's unilateral cease-fire, Dora appreciated what in 2003 he called an "atmosphere of peace" that had played a significant role in encouraging Assyrians to consider a return to their Southern Anatolian homeland.{{cite web |author=Amberin Zaman |author-link=Amberin Zaman |title=Christians Return to Native Turkey |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-aug-10-fg-turkey10-story.html |date=10 August 2003 |access-date=21 November 2015}} In 2011, Dora still said: "Europe has the impression that Turkey is moving towards Islam and that it is a country that is becoming less secular. But as far as I am concerned, there isn't much of a difference between the past and the present, the situation is more or less the same and one of the things that has changed for the better is in fact the situation for Christians."

In the issue of history school books denigrating Armenians and Aramaic Christians, Dora however acknowledged that hostile phrasings appeared there only relatively recently.{{cite web |author=Vercihan Ziflioğlu |title=History books to exclude discrimination |work=Hürriyet Daily News |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/history-books-to-exclude--discrimination.aspx?pageID=238&nID=9302&NewsCatID=339 |date=16 December 2011 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} The textbooks were found to distort historical information portraiting the Christian minorities as traitors, supposedly to help justify the genocides against Christians in the outgoing Ottoman Empire.{{cite book |author=Soner Önder |chapter=Minority Rights in Turkey: Quo Vadis, Assyrians? |editor=P.H. Omtzigt |editor2=Markus K. Tozman |editor3=Andrea Tyndall |title=The Slow Disappearance of the Syriacs from Turkey and of the Grounds of the Mor Gabriel Monastery |year=2012 |publisher=LIT |location=Münster |isbn=978-3-643-90268-9 |url={{Google books|no5_QSBVq7kC|page=104|plainurl=y}} |pages=99–120; here: 104}} To discuss the issue originally raised by fourteen Syriac civil and religious organizations,{{cite journal |author=Timotheos Samuel Aktaş |author-link=Timotheos Samuel Aktaş |title=Report about the Current Situation in Turabdin |url=http://www.suryoyo.uni-goettingen.de/library/samuelaktas-turabdin2012-en.pdf |date=24 February 2012 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} Dora met education minister Ömer Dinçer on 15 December 2011{{cite news |author=Abdulmesih BarAbraham |title=Conference in Munich Highlighted Assyrian Human Rights Issues |agency=AINA |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20120107170004.htm |date=7 January 2012 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} and raised the issue in parliament. Eventually the ministry promised the revision of a particularly problematic textbook,{{cite web |author=Vercihan Ziflioğlu |title=Racist terms set to be excluded from books |work=Hürriyet Daily News |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/racist-terms-set-to-be-excluded-from-books.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26775&NewsCatID=339 |date=1 August 2012 |accessdate=21 November 2015}} which however turned into the opposite, as the revised version of the textbook doesn't only portray Assyrians as traitors in the past, but now also claims that even today's Assyrians continued their betrayal of Turkey.{{cite news |title=Negative Portrayal of Assyrians Remains in Turkish School Book Despite Promises of Removal |agency=AINA |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20121024190017.htm |date=24 October 2012 |accessdate=21 November 2015}}

Lately, Dora supported the – ultimately successful – months of protest against destruction of the historic Armenian community property Kamp Armen in Istanbul, where he himself was once raised and educated. Visiting the site in May 2015, he stated that "Kamp Armen will be a significant symbol that provides an answer to that question."{{cite web |author=Fatih Gökhan Diler |title=HDP MP Erol Dora returns to Kamp Armen in meaningful visit |work=Agos |url=http://www.agos.com.tr/en/article/11617/hdp-mp-erol-dora-returns-to-kamp-armen-in-meaningful-visit |date=18 May 2015 |accessdate=21 November 2015}}

Regarding the mass exodus of Christians from Iraq, Dora asked the United Nations and the USA to "intervene to defend them but without creating a civil conflict."

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Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Silopi

Category:Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni

Category:20th-century Turkish lawyers

Category:Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians

Category:Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey

Category:Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey

Category:Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey

Category:Deputies of Mardin

Category:21st-century Turkish lawyers