Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu

Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu
Member of the Grand National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 June 2023
Constituency	İstanbul (III) (2023)
Leader of the Free Cause Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 June 2021
Preceded by	İshak Sağlam
In office 30 June 2013 – 21 May 2018
Preceded by	Mehmet Hüseyin Yılmaz
Succeeded by	Mehmet Yavuz
Personal details
Born	1966 (age 58–59) Batman, Turkey
Political party	Free Cause Party
Education	Lawyer, politician
Alma mater	Ankara University, Law School

Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu (born 1966; Batman) is a Turkish-Kurdish politician and lawyer who led the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party from June 2013 to May 2018 and again from June 2021 on.[1][2]

Biography

Born in 1966 in the city of Batman in the eastern part of Turkey, he worked as a lawyer from 1990 to 2012 after finishing his education as a lawyer in Ankara. He co-founded the Free Cause Party in 2013 in an attempt to consolidate the conservative Kurdish vote.[3] Yapıcıoğlu had previously been a supporter of Kurdish Hezbollah and also stated that the cause of Hüda-Par was the continuation of that of Sheikh Said.[4]

Yapıcıoğlu is Anti-Darwinian and generally uses Islamic rhetoric in his speeches.[5][6] Moreover, he is against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, anti-America[7] and also criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party's policies and their failure in bringing peace to Kurdish areas.[8]

Electoral history

Yapıcıoğlu ran unsuccessfully as an independent twice in 2015 and in 2018 in the district of Diyarbakır and received 3.4% and 4.3% of the vote share respectively.

Election	District	Votes[9]	%	Results
General elections, June 2015	Diyarbakır	27,537	3.4%	Not elected
General elections, 2018	Diyarbakır	35,239	4.3%	Not elected

References

1. "Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu İstifa Etti" (in Turkish). Milliyet. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
2. "Kurdistan Islamic Union congratulates Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu for winning HÜDA PAR chairmanship". Dogru Haber. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
3. "Hür Dava Partisi (Hüda par) nedir?". Hürriyet Daily News (in Turkish). Retrieved 23 March 2020.
4. Mehmet Kurt (2017). Kurdish Hizbullah in turkey – Islamism, violence and the State. London: PlutoPress. p. 49.
5. Mehmet Kurt (2017). Kurdish Hizbullah in turkey – Islamism, violence and the State. London: PlutoPress. p. 108.
6. "Our goal is to establish justice: Yapıcıoğlu" (in Turkish). İlke Haber Ajansı. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
7. "Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu Rojava ve 'O sözlere' ilişkin konuştu" (in Turkish). 27 October 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
8. "HÜDA PAR lideri Yapıcıoğlu: Ak Parti sistemi muhafaza ediyor". Independent Türkçe (in Turkish). 19 October 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
9. "Sandık Sonuçları ve Tutanaklar". sonuc.ysk.gov.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 23 March 2020.