Doğu Perinçek

Doğu Perinçek (born 17 June 1942) is a Turkish politician, doctor of law and former communist revolutionary who has been chairman of the left-wing nationalist Patriotic Party since 2015.

He was also a member of the Talat Pasha Committee, an organization that denies the Armenian genocide.

Politically, he is an Eurasianist who favors close relations with China and is strongly anti-American.

Doğu Perinçek was born in Gaziantep in 1942 to Sadık Perinçek of Apçağa, Kemaliye, and Lebibe Olcaytu of Balaban, Darende.

Sadık Perinçek was the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court and a parliamentary deputy of the Justice Party (AP), the predecessor of the True Path Party (DYP).

Perinçek attended Ankara Sarar primary school, Atatürk Lycee, and Bahçelievler Deneme high school.

He interrupted his university education to study German at the Goethe Institute in Germany, going on to finish Ankara University's Law faculty, and working as an assistant lecturer in public law.

He then completed a doctorate at the Otto-Suhr-Institut in Germany.

Prior to his detention as part of the Ergenekon case, Perinçek resided in Gayrettepe, Istanbul with his wife Şule Perinçek.

They have two daughters, Zeynep and Kiraz, and two sons, Can and Mehmet Bora, who is a historian.

Perinçek became involved in left-wing revolutionary politics in the 1960s.

In 1968 he was elected president of the Federation of Debate Clubs (Fikir Kulüpleri Federasyonu, later Dev-Genç), a group of left-wing youth, and adopted a pro-Chinese, pro-Mao Zedong stance.

Perinçek was involved in the relaunch of the magazine Aydınlık in 1968, supporting the Luminosity movement.

Due to political disagreements between Mahir Çayan's followers and Perinçek's faction, Aydınlık split into two journals (Perinçek's group published under the name Proleter Devrimci Aydınlık).

In 1969 he founded the illegal Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey (TİİKP).

He was arrested after the 1971 military coup and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was released in July 1974.

In 1978 the Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey (TİKP) was founded as a legal successor to the TİİKP.

Perinçek was arrested again after the 1980 military coup and sentenced to eight years in prison.

He was released in March 1985.

In 1987 he was involved with the launch of the weekly news magazine 2000'e Doğru.

In 1990, Perinçek was arrested and put in Diyarbakır Prison for three months after the issue of the Law of Censorship and Exile.

In the 1990s he was involved with the founding of the short-lived Socialist Party and then the Workers' Party.

In 1991, while he was editor-in-chief of 2000'e Doğru, he went to Lebanon to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

He was the Workers' Party's leader from its foundation in 1992 until it was rebranded in 2015 as the Patriotic Party, which he has led since.

In Turkey, on 21 March 2008, Perinçek was detained as part of an investigation into the alleged organization named Ergenekon.

This followed the arrest and detention of 39 suspects in January 2008 during raids targeting Ergenekon.

On 5 August 2013 Perinçek was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment.

In 2013, he wrote that "we can learn the capitalism of the 19th century from Marx, capitalism and imperialism of the 20th century from Lenin, and the theories of the first experiences of the establishment of socialism from Mao".

His foreign policy position seen as largely is anti-West and pro-China.

He was released on 10 March 2014 together with many other prisoners.

Perinçek has spent a total of 15 years of his life in prison at different times.

Since 2014, he has been an influential informal foreign policy adviser to the Turkish government.

His influence on foreign policy has been significant.

Perinçek has stated that "[r]epublicans, nationalists, populists, socialists and revolutionaries all unite in one party, the Patriotic Party".

He has strongly opposed the Turkish intervention in Syria and actively promoted better ties with president Bashar al-Assad and his government, personally meeting Assad in Damascus in 2015.

He has called for better ties with Iran, and opposes US sanctions on the country.

During an interview with Xinhua News Agency in 2017, he praised the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and stated that "China today represents hope for the whole humanity".

He was the presidential candidate of the Patriotic Party for the 2018 presidential elections, He attempted to be the party's presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, though didn't get enough signatures.

Perinçek has said that he supports scientific socialism.

Despite being associated with Maoism for a long time, the Patriotic Party has said that he isn't a Maoist, instead saying that he embraced "Mao's contributions to the literature of the world revolution and scientific socialism" and "adapted them to Turkey's conditions".