Mazlum Dogan 

Mazlum Dogan was born in Teman, a village in the province of Dersim, in 1955. He went to school in Karakocan, in 1974 he passed the university entrance exams and succeeded to Hacattepe, an ivy league school in Ankara, Turkey. At Hacattepe, Mazlum Dogan met with other Kurds who familiarized him with politics. Reading developed into a passion of his life, those who knew him well have said that he read up to 500 pages a day. He learned of the cruel world of oppression that controlled all around him. He was determined to fight discrimination even if it meant with his own life.

His mother has related to the viewers of MedTv that he lived not just for the Kurds but also for all of humanity. He dreamed of a Middle East free of oppression. He had visualized an idea of a confederation of the Middle Eastern community along with Kemal Pir. Mazlum live for one goal alone, which was to free the Kurds.

In the fall of 1979, he went to Viransehir, Riha, assembled the Kurds for political rights. On September 30 of that year, he was detained and later placed in the legendary Diyarbakir Military Prison alongside with thousands of other Kurds. For three years, he undertook abuse, torment, and embarrassment. As a political prisoner, he was required to wear a prison uniform but he refused. He was beaten to sing the Turkish national anthem, he refused to that too and so he took the beating but did not sing he anthem.

On March 21, 1982, Mazlum Dogan did an extreme thing, he set himself on fire to escape from the Turkish torture he had endeavored. He has become a sparkle to the darkness that was over our Kurdish lives for so many years.