[3] On 28 May 2006 he was arrested after having attended a funeral of members of the PKK and spent 4 months in prison.
[4] He was elected the vice-president in February 2007 and president of the DTP on 9 December 2007, at the party's second general assembly.
[5] As a politician he was a peace activist and in September 2007, he and Selma Irmak were prosecuted for having mistreated the Turkish nation for having distributed leaflets criticizing the Turkish military on International World Peace Day.
[6] On 17 December 2007 he was arrested on his return from a European tour and imprisoned on charges of forging a document to evade military conscription.
[8] Turkish men are required to serve in the army for up to 15 months after the age of 20 unless they have health problems that prevent them from fulfilling military duty.