Çağlar Demirel | |
---|---|
Member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey | |
In office 2015–2016 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 29 July 1969 Kulp, Diyarbakır |
Political party | HDP |
Alma mater | Dicle University |
Çağlar Demirel (born 29 July 1969, Kulp, Turkey [1]) is a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin and a former member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). [2]
Çağlar Demirel was born the Kulp in the Diyarbakır province. She enrolled into the Dicle University where she studied nursing [3] and graduated in 1995. [2] Following, she was an adviser on health care for several women and governmental institutions in Turkey [2] and was involved in a variety of NGO's focusing on women's rights. [4]
She was elected as the Mayor of Derik, Mardin in the municipal elections of 2009 for the Democratic Society Party (DTP). [5] After DTP was banned in December 2009 [6] she joined Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). [7] She was detained together with more than 100 other politicians of the BDP in October 2011 due to an investigation into the activities of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). [8] While in prison, she joined a hunger strike in protest of the detention conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, the detained leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). [9] She was elected to the Turkish parliament in the general elections of June 2015 [10] and re-elected In the snap elections of November 2015, both times representing the HDP for Diarbakir. [11] Following, she became the vice-chair of the HDP parliamentarian group. [12] As such, she supported the peace process between the Turkish Government and the PKK. [13]
On the 14 December 2016 Bianet reported that Demirel was arrested and prosecuted for membership in propagandizing for a terrorist organization. [14] In July 2017, she was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months imprisonment for being a member of a terrorist organization. [15] On the 17 March 2021, the State Prosecutor before the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court demanding for Demirel and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to engage in politics together with a closure of the HDP due to their alleged organizational links with the PKK. [16] [4] In September 2021, the Court of Cassation ordered a retrial and Demirel was released. [3]