Muammer Aksoy was a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 academic of law, politician, columnist and intellectual, who was assassinated by Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic militants for being a Kemalist.

Biography

He was born 1917 in İbradı

Ibradi

İbradı is a district of Antalya Province of Turkey.İbradı is a high plain in the Taurus Mountains. In summer the weather is dry and cooler than the nearby Mediterranean coast with a daytime temperature of 30 degrees C and 10 degrees C at night. The mountains are covered with forests of juniper,...

, Antalya Province

Antalya Province

Antalya Province is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean sea.Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visiting Turkey. The province of Antalya corresponds to the lands of...

 to the member of the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 parliament Numan Aksoy. After his graduation from the Law School at Istanbul University in 1939, Muammer Aksoy earned 1950 his Doctor of Law

Doctor of law

Doctor of Law or Doctor of Laws is a doctoral degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country, and includes degrees such as the LL.D., Ph.D., J.D., J.S.D., and Dr. iur.-Argentina:...

 degree in the Faculty of Law and State Sciences at University of Zurich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

. Returned to Turkey, he worked as an assistant in commercial law

Commercial law

Commercial law is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions...

 at Istanbul University

Istanbul University

Istanbul University is a Turkish university located in Istanbul. The main campus is adjacent to Beyazıt Square.- Synopsis :A madrasa, a religious school, was established sometime in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. An institution of higher education named the...

 and then as an associate professor in civil law

Civil law (common law)

Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...

 at Ankara University.

Muammer Aksoy quit his post in 1957 because he felt that the newly enacted university law would limit the academic liberty at the university, and entered his political life by joining the Republican People's Party

Republican People's Party (Turkey)

The Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...

 (CHP). After the military coup in 1960

Military coup in Turkey, 1960

The military coup in Turkey, 1960 was a coup d'état staged by a group of Turkish army officers, against the democratically elected government of the Democrat Party on 27 May 1960....

, he returned to Ankara University to lecture constitutional law

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....

 and collaborated on the preparation the Constitution of 1961

Turkish Constitution of 1961

The Constitution of 1961 was the fundamental law of Turkey from 1961 to 1982. It was introduced following the 1960 coup d'état, replacing the earlier Constitution of 1924. It was approved in a referendum held on 9 July 1961, with 61.7% of the nation voting in favor...

. Aksoy was elected in 1977 deputy of Istanbul from CHP. He served as the Turkish delegate to the European Council

European Council

The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...

. After the military coup in 1980

Military coup in Turkey, 1980

The 12 September 1980 Turkish coup d'état, headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic after the 1960 coup and the 1971 "Coup by Memorandum"....

, Muammer Aksoy was elected President of the Bar association

Bar association

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

 of Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

. He was also president of the Turkish Law Institution for 15 years. In 1989, he co-founded with some other intellectuals the Kemalist Thought Association

Atatürk Thought Association

Atatürk Thought Association is a secular organization that espouses the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. The group is opposed to the Islamist tenets enacted by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran and wants to ensure that religion and state remain separate in Turkey...

, and served as the founding chairman. Aksoy also wrote column for the leftist newspaper Cumhuriyet

Cumhuriyet

Cumhuriyet is a centre-left Turkish daily newspaper, founded on May 7, 1924 by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. Based in Istanbul, it has been situated since October 17, 2005 in Mecidiyeköy. Cumhuriyet was the last newspaper to leave the old press district Cağaloğlu...

.

Since 1950, he was an energetic defender of Atatürk's reforms

Atatürk's Reforms

Atatürk's Reforms were a series of political, legal, cultural, social and economic reforms that were designed to modernize the new Republic of Turkey into a democratic and secular nation-state...

, democracy and laicism. He campaigned for the nationalization of the strategic natural resources as petroleum, coal and borax

Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.Borax has a wide variety of uses...

.

Muammer Aksoy was murdered in the evening of January 31, 1990 in front of his home in the Bahçelievler neighborhood of Ankara. The assassination was owned by then unknown militant organizations "İslami Hareket" (Islamic Movement) and "İslami İntikam" (Islamic Revenge). The renowned investigative journalist Uğur Mumcu

Ugur Mumcu

Uğur Mumcu was an intrepid Turkish investigative journalist for the leading Kemalist broadsheet, Cumhuriyet. He was assassinated with a bomb placed in his car, outside his home.- Biography :...

, a student of him, who bore his photo in front of the funeral procession, was also assassinated three years later. His colleague and co-founder of the Kemalist Thoughts Association, Bahriye Üçok

Bahriye Üçok

Bahriye Üçok was a female Turkish academic of theology, left-wing politician, writer, columnist and women's rights activist, whose assassination in 1990, remains unresolved.-Biography:...

 shared the same,
fatal fate eight months later.

Muammer Aksoy is survived by his wife and two children.

External links

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