{{Short description|Turkish politician (born 1963)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Mithat Sancar | honorific_suffix = MP | image = Mithat Sancar, March 2022 (cropped).jpg | caption = Mithat Sancar, 2022 | office = Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party | term_start = 23 February 2020 | term_end = 27 August 2023 | predecessor = Sezai Temelli | successor = Cahit Kırkazak | office2 = Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly | term_start2 = 20 February 2018 | predecessor2 = Pervin Buldan | 1blankname2 = Speaker | 1namedata2 = İsmail Kahraman<br />Binali Yıldırım<br />Mustafa Şentop | 2blankname2 = Serving with | 2namedata2 = {{collapsible list |title=''27th Parliament'' |1=Mustafa Şentop<br />Levent Gök<br />Celal Adan}}{{collapsible list |title=''26th Parliament'' |1=Ahmet Aydın<br />Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı<bR>Yaşar Tüzün}} | office3 = {{GNAT MP}} | term_start3 = 23 June 2015 | constituency3 = Mardin (June 2015, Nov 2015, 2018)<br />Şanlıurfa (2023) | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1963}} | birth_place = Nusaybin, Turkey | death_date = | death_place = | citizenship = | alma_mater = Ankara University | profession = Constitutional law scholar | spouse = Türkan Sancar | party = Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) {{small|(2023-present)}} | other_party = People's Democratic Party (HDP) {{small|(2015-2023)}} | alongside = Pervin Buldan | term_end2 = 23 February 2020 | successor2 = Nimetullah Erdoğmuş }}
thumb|Mithat Sancar in 2015 '''Mithat Sancar''' (born 1963) is a Turkish professor of public and constitutional law, newspaper columnist, and translator of Arab descent. He has been an MP for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the Turkish parliament since the June 2015 general election and was elected Co-Chair of the party in February 2020.
== Biography ==
=== Early life and academic career === Born 1963 in Nusaybin, Sancar attended high school in Diyarbakır before going to Ankara University, where he graduated majoring in public law. In 1995, following his graduation, he received his Ph.D. in constitutional law with a thesis on the "Interpretation of Basic Rights" ({{langx|tr|Temel Hakların Yorumu}}).<ref name=Bianet>{{cite web |author=Beyza Kural |title=Sancar, Akademiden Meclis'e Giden Yolda Mardin'de |trans-title=Sancar, from Academia to Parliament via Merdin |publisher=Bianet |url=http://bianet.org/bianet/siyaset/164661-sancar-akademiden-meclis-e-giden-yolda-mardin-de |date=20 May 2015 |language=tr |access-date=21 November 2015}}</ref>
From 1985-1990, he was employed as a research assistant in the Faculty of Law of the Dicle University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Just Expectations: A Compilation of TESEV Research Studies on the Judiciary in Turkey|last=Suavi Aydin, Meryem Erdal, Mithat Sancar, Eylem Ümit Atilgan|year=2011|isbn=978-605-5832-63-6|pages=146}}</ref> Since 1999, he has been a lecturer and since 2007 a full professor at Ankara University.<ref name=Bianet /> Together with fellow scholar {{Interlanguage link|Tanıl Bora|de}}, he translated Jürgen Habermas' first major work "Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit" into the Turkish language.
=== Political activism === Mithat Sancar is one of the founders of the Ankara-based Human Rights Foundation (TİHV, est. 1990) and the {{Interlanguage link|Institute of Human Rights of Turkey|tr|3=Türkiye İnsan Hakları Kurumu|lt=Institute of Human Rights}} (TİHAK, est. 1999). Between 1998 and 2003, Sancar and his colleague Tanıl Bora organized the Human Rights Association's (İHD) annual conference on the Human rights movement in Turkey.
Since 2007, he has been a columnist for the leftist BirGün newspaper. He also wrote for the newspapers Taraf.
== Parliamentary career == Ahead of the June 2015 general election, Sancar was asked by HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş, one of his former students, to run for parliament. After some hesitation, he agreed to suspend his academic career in order to help the HDP over the 10% threshold.<ref name="Bianet" /> Heading the party's electoral list in the Mardin constituency, he was elected a member of the Grand National Assembly.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yenisafak.com/secim-2015/mardin-ili-secim-sonuclari|title=Mardin Seçim Sonuçları 2015 - Genel Seçim 2015|last=Şafak|first=Yeni|date=2020-02-29|website=Yeni Şafak|language=tr-TR|access-date=2020-02-28}}</ref> In the subsequent November 2015 snap election and in the General Election 2018 he was reelected.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/milletvekillerimiz_sd.bilgi?p_donem=27&p_sicil=7175|title=Mithat SANCAR|website=TBMM.gov.tr}}</ref> He is currently a Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly.
In November 2015, Sancar and Erol Dora 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<ref>{{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 |access-date=21 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=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 |archive-date=20 November 2015 }}</ref> and under the pretext of operating against militant YDG-H members, 70% of the neighborhoods have been cut from electricity, 30% from water supply.<ref>{{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 |access-date=21 November 2015}}</ref>
On 23 February 2020, Sancar was elected Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party along with Pervin Buldan who was re-elected.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bianet.org/english/politics/220474-pervin-buldan-mithat-sancar-elected-new-hdp-co-chairs|title=Pervin Buldan, Mithat Sancar Elected New HDP Co-Chairs|date=24 February 2020|website=Bianet|access-date=28 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/230220201|title=Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP elects new leadership at 4th party congress|website=www.rudaw.net|access-date=2020-03-02}}</ref>
== Legal prosecution == According to an interview he gave Sancar was accused of having insulted the President for having declared the Turkish government was in part responsible for the terrorist attack against a HDP rally in Ankara and for having also said to the authorities that a conflict should be prevented in Cizre. Then he is also prosecuted for Propaganda for the PKK because he has supported the opening of Kurdish schools.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.woz.ch/-7510|title=Mithat Sancar: "Die HDP ist ein wichtiger Teil der demokratischen Internationale"|date=2016-11-30|website=www.woz.ch|language=de|access-date=2019-03-03}}</ref> The State Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation in Turkey Bekir Şahin filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court on the 17 March 2021, demanding for Sancar and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban for political activities.<ref name=":02">{{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}}</ref> The lawsuit was filed jointly with a request for the HDP to be shut down due to the parties alleged organizational links with the PKK.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-03-18|title=Turkish prosecutor seeks political ban on 687 pro-Kurdish politicians|url=https://www.duvarenglish.com/turkish-prosecutor-seeks-political-ban-on-687-pro-kurdish-politicians-news-56691|access-date=2021-03-19|website=www.duvarenglish.com|publisher=Gazete Duvar|language=}}</ref><ref name=":02" />
== Personal life == Sancar is married to Türkan Sancar<ref>{{Cite web |last=Life |first=Mardin |title=HDP'li Prof. Dr. Mithat Sancar Kimdir? Aslen Nerelidir? Özgeçmişi? |url=https://www.mardinlife.com/hdpli-prof-dr-mithat-sancar-kimdir-aslen-nerelidir-ozgecmisi.html |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=Mardin Life |language=tr}}</ref> and the cousin of the Nobel prize in Chemistry laureate in 2015, Aziz Sancar.<ref>{{cite web|title=Turkish-American scientist among winners of 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/world_turkish-american-scientist-among-winners-of-2015-nobel-prize-in-chemistry_400839.html |publisher=Today's Zaman |access-date=12 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151011005639/http://www.todayszaman.com/world_turkish-american-scientist-among-winners-of-2015-nobel-prize-in-chemistry_400839.html |archive-date=11 October 2015 }}</ref> Sancar considers Arabic his native language, while Kurdish was the language he spoke on the street. Besides these, he speaks Turkish, English and German.<ref name="Bianet" />
== Books ==
* Devlet Aklı” Kıskacında Hukuk Devleti (2000)<ref name=":0" /> * Mülteciler veİltica Hakkı (2002, co-authored by Bülent Peker) * Geçmişle Hesaplaşma - Unutma Kültüründen Hatırlama Kültürüne (2007)
== References == {{Reflist|30em}} {{Commons category}}
== External links == * {{Twitter}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sancar, Mithat}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:People from Nusaybin Category:Turkish people of Arab descent Category:Turkish legal scholars Category:Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Category:Academic staff of Ankara University Category:Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians Category:Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Category:Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Category:Deputies of Mardin Category:Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Category:Deputy speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Category:Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey Category:Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party politicians