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Journalist and documentarist Mehmel Ülger passed away yesterday morning in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Ülger had been in treatment for cancer for a long time.
Ülger who had been living in Amsterdam, had settled in Rotterdam together with his wife Astrid van Unen in the last stage of his illness.
His body will be transported from the Netherlands to Kayseri, Turkey, where he was born.
About Mehmet Ülger
Ülger was born in 1962 in Kayseri. In the beginning of the 1980's he moved to the Netherlands. During the 1990's and 2000's, he worked for the TV programmes Netwerk and EenVandaag, KRO Spoorloos, NOVA, Zembla in the Netherlands and worked as a journalist in newspapers, magazines and news agencies of ANP, Contrast, Wordt Vervolgd, De Humanist, De Groene Amsterdammer, de Volkskrant and OnzeWereld.
He was the first chairperson of the Holland-DIDF (Federation of Democratic Workers' Association) established in 1985 in the Netherlands and published various books and produced documentaries in addition to his profession as a journalist. These productions were also broadcasted in the Turkey-based Hayatın Sesi TV (Voice of Life) besides TV channels in the Netherlands.
He was an executive of the Holland Journalists' Union. In 1996, following the murder of journalist Metin Göktepe in detention, he founded the Röportaj Vakfı (Interview Foundation) to support press freedom and inform journalists in the Netherlands and the public on restrictions and violations of freedom of press.
Documentaries: Children of the season (Child labour in Turkey's cotton industry), Zara's letter, Zara, White Gold in Children's Hands, Brave in Children's Shoes, From Anatolia to the Land of Tulips.
Books: Blind spot of Holland (exploitation of illegal workers in the Netherlands) Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar - the role of the Turkish fascists and mafia in the Netherlands), I don't want to cause anyone trouble (the loneliness of the elder Turkish immigrant workers in the Netherlands). (ÇT/DG)
