1. Aykan Erdemir served in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 2011 and 2015 as a representative from the pro-secular Republican People's Party.
17 Facts About Aykan Erdemir
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Aykan Erdemir is one of the founders and former steering committee members of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, the first multi-faith and bipartisan global network of parliamentarians committed to combating religious persecution and advancing freedom of religion or belief, as defined by Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Aykan Erdemir earlier served as the Senior Director of the Turkey Program at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Washington, DC and on the Anti-Defamation League's Task Force on Middle East Minorities.
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Aykan Erdemir received his doctoral degree from Harvard University's Anthropology and Middle East Studies joint program with his dissertation Incorporating Alevis: The Transformation of Governance and Faith-based Collective Action in Turkey.
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Aykan Erdemir was a doctoral fellow at John F Kennedy School of Government's Center for Nonprofit Organizations, and a research associate at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society.
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Aykan Erdemir held teaching positions at Middle East Technical University's Department of Sociology and Bilkent University's Department of Political Science and Public Administration.
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Aykan Erdemir has identified patriarchy and gerontocracy as the leading problems of the Turkish political system, and as part of his attempts to reform the Republican People's Party, he has advocated introducing 50 percent gender quota with alternating female and male candidates as well as youth quota for under-30 candidates.
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Andrew Brunson 8.
Aykan Erdemir announced his decision to quit active politics in March 2015, stating that he would like to spend more time with his two daughters while noting that the Turkish Parliament does not accommodate the needs of parents with young children.
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Aykan Erdemir has been one of the most outspoken critics of antisemitism in Turkey.
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Aykan Erdemir has been an outspoken defender of Turkey's Christian minorities.
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In June 2013, Aykan Erdemir prepared a draft bill to lift the ban on Greek language instruction for the Eastern Orthodox Christian minority residing on the islands of Imbros and Tenedos.
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In February 2015, Aykan Erdemir drafted a bill to grant legal status to Alevi worship places, in an attempt to remedy a longstanding grievance of Turkey's Alevis.
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Aykan Erdemir later warned that the Turkish government and pro-government media were scapegoating Christians.
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Aykan Erdemir has been at the forefront of the global campaign to free US Pastor Andrew Brunson, held in Turkey over trumped up charges of being a member of an armed terror organizations and plotting coup.
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Aykan Erdemir has testified at the US Senate at a hearing held by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on the treatment of Pastor Andrew Brunson and other religious minorities in Turkey.
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Aykan Erdemir has documented the way in which Turkish Radio and Television Corporation-funded blockbuster Payitaht: Abdulhamid vilified Jews and Christians by distorting historical facts and propagating antisemitic anti-Western conspiracies.
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Aykan Erdemir is married to archaeologist and art historian Dr Tugba Tanyeri-Aykan Erdemir, an expert on the cultural heritage of religious minorities in the Middle East, who works as the coordinator of the Anti-Defamation League's Task Force on Middle East Minorities.