Bijan Djir-Sarai

Bijan Djir-Sarai (Persian: بیژن جیرسرایی; born 6 June 1976) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 until 2013 and since 2017.

Bijan Djir-Sarai
Member of the Bundestag
for Nordrhein-Westfalen
Assumed office
24 October 2017
In office
27 October 2009 – 22 September 2013
Personal details
Born (1976-06-06) 6 June 1976
Tehran, Iran
CitizenshipGerman
Political partyFree Democratic Party (FDP)
Alma materUniversity of Cologne
OccupationPolitician

Background and education

Djir-Sarai was born on 6 June 1976 in Tehran. He was sent to Germany to live with an uncle at the age of 11 by his Iranian family.

Political career

Djir-Sarai joined the FDP in 1996.[1] He first became a member of the German Parliament in the 2009 elections.[1] From 2009 and 2013, he served on the Committee on Foreign Relations. In the 2013 elections, he lost his mandate.

Djir-Sarai was re-elected in the 2017 elections and has since been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs again. He serves as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on foreign policy. In addition to his committee assignments, he chairs the German-Iranian Parliamentary Friendship Group.[2]

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Djir-Sarai was part of his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired by Heiko Maas, Omid Nouripour and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff.[3] In April 2022 he was elected as the General Secretary of the FDP.[1]

Other activities

Corporate boards
  • Sparkasse Neuss, Member of the Supervisory Board[4]

Non-profit organizations

Political positions

Djir-Sarai opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and favors the recognition of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.[7]

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Djir-Sarai joined some 70 legislators from Europe and the US in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.[8]

Controversy

In 2011, the Internet platform VroniPlag[9] Wiki documented numerous inadequately sourced passages in the thesis. The University of Cologne withdrew his doctoral degree on 5 March 2012, since scientific citation obligations had not been sufficiently considered.[10]

References
  1. "Gewählt mit 89 Prozent: Djir-Sarai ist neuer Generalsekretär der FDP". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 23 April 2022. ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  2. "World watches warily as Iran scales back nuclear deal". DW. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  3. Ampel-Koalition: Das sind die Verhandlungsteams von SPD, Grünen und FDP Archived 2021-11-01 at the Wayback Machine Deutschlandfunk, October 27, 2021.
  4. 2017 Annual Report Sparkasse Neuss
  5. Board Walther Rathenau Institute.
  6. Boards Archived 2016-09-11 at the Wayback Machine German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
  7. Weinthal, Benjamin (21 June 2019). "Against the Current: Germany's Iranian-Born MP on the Front Lines for Israel and Jewish Life in Germany". Tablet. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  8. Stuart Lau (January 25, 2021), G7 lawmakers tell leaders to ‘stand up’ to China Politico Europe.
  9. "Startseite - VroniPlag". www.vroniplag.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  10. "Plagiatsaffäre - Alle Fälle von A-Z | Business And Science" (in German). Retrieved 2019-08-08.
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