STOCKHOLM, Sweden (January 1, 2001 Kurdish writer and political activist
Mahmut Baksi, who fled Turkey in 1970 after he was threatened with prison for
publishing a book with a Kurdish title, has died. He was 56.

Baksi died Dec. 19 in a hospital in his adopted hometown of Stockholm after a long
illness, his nephew Kurdo Baksi said.

Mahmut Baksi fled his native country in 1970 after being accused of separatism
because he published a book with the title "Mesopotamia" in Kurdish, his nephew
said. The Turkish government does not recognize the country's 12 million Kurds as
a minority and sees any hints at Kurdish nationalism as attempts to break apart the
state.

Baksi spent a brief time in Germany before settling in Sweden in 1971, where he
became a citizen and continued to protest the Turkish government's alleged
mistreatment of the Kurdish minority. He staged hunger strikes and wrote many
newspaper articles on Kurdish problems and integration issues.

Baksi also published about 20 books in Swedish, Kurdish and Turkish, including
some for children and one that contained an interview he did in Italy with rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan, who is now facing a death sentence in Turkey.

Baksi is survived by his longtime girlfriend Elin Clason and his 26-year-old daughter,
Zanna.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com