Sebahat Tuncel
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& Kamuran Yüksek
Selahattin Demirtaş
Sebahat Tuncel (born 5 July 1975) is a Turkish politician[1] of Kurdish origin,[2] women's rights advocate, former nurse and member of the Parliament in Turkey.[3] She was elected a member of parliament while being in prison.
She was born in Yazıhan and studied cartography and land surveying in Mersin University, before beginning her political career through the Women's Branch of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in 1998. After she was involved in the foundation of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), she became the spokesperson of its women's assembly.[4] Subsequently, she was the vice co-chairperson and Istanbul deputy of the DTP,[4] She has also worked with international organizations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Amnesty International (AI).[5]
Political career
She was arrested on 5 November 2006 for alleged membership in the PKK.[6] But after she ran as an independent candidate within the Thousand Hopes alliance for the parliamentary elections from prison and after winning a seat in Istanbul with 93,000 votes,[7] she was released from custody in July 2007.[8] She was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from prison to the surprise of many.[9] In the parliamentary election of 2011, she was an independent candidate to parliament supported by the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block,[10] and was elected as an MP for Istanbul's first electoral district.[11] After her election she led a movement which criticized the fact that Hatip Dicle was not allowed to assume his seat in parliament even though he was elected.[10] In 2013 she was elected co-chair of the HDP together with Ertuğrul Kürkçü.[12] In May 2016 she was elected co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) together with Kamuran Yüksek.[13] As by September 2016 several mayors of the DBP were removed, the DBP co-chair Tunnel invited the mayors to work on for the people from the parties buildings instead of the municipalities.[14]
