Kurdish politician and former Diyarbakır Mayor Mehdi Zana died at the age of 85 in the hospital where he was receiving treatment for KOAH. Zana, who was recently admitted to intensive care, will be buried tomorrow at Yeniköy Cemetery in Diyarbakır.
Zana, who was elected Diyarbakır Mayor as an independent candidate in 1978, was arrested following the September 12, 1980 coup and spent a total of 16 years in prison during different periods of his political life. Zana lived in Sweden for approximately 10 years after 1994 and returned to Turkey in October 2004. He compiled his memoirs in the book “Wait, Diyarbakır.”
Background
Kurdish is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 2 reports mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent was dated August 29, 2026.