Ayşe Acar Başaran (born 2 October 1985) is a lawyer and politician of the People's Democratic Party (HDP). She is a current Member of Parliament for the city of Batman in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. She was appointed spokesperson for the HDP Women's Council at the 4th HDP Party Conference in February 2020.

Early life

Başaran was born in Batman on 2 October 1985, as the second of the four children of Abdurrahman Acar and Sultani Acar. After completing school education in Batman, she graduated from

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University ( tr, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) (DEÜ) is a university in İzmir, Turkey. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 15 faculties. DEU is the first university which applied the problem-based learning method in Turkey, ...

Faculty of Law in 2010. Başaran worked as a lawyer for the Batman Bar Association for 4 years. She is a member of the Free Women's Congress Association.

Political career

In 2013 and 2014, the HDP's predecessor party, the

Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party ( tr, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, ku, Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 20 ...

(BDP) provincial executive appointed Başaran to its women's council. In the

June 2015 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 7 June 2015 to elect Member of Parliament#Turkey, 550 members to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Grand National Assembly. This was the 24th general election in the History of the Republic of Turke ...

, Başaran was elected as the HDP's Batman deputy to parliament. She was re-elected in the

November 2015 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 1 November 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. They were the 25th general elections in the History of the Republic of Turkey and elected the country's 26th Parliament. The elect ...

. In October 2018, Turkish police arrested many HDP members in the run up to local elections, including the co-chairs of the party in Batman, Nizamettin Toguc and Berivan Helen Isik on charges of supporting terrorism. Başaran accused the Turkish authorities of beating up her party colleagues and abusing the rule of law for political purposes. In March 2019, Başaran stated that 713 party members had been arrested in the run up to local elections. In January 2020, Başaran criticised Turkish authorities in the aftermath of earthquakes which killed 39 people, saying "for the sake of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

rent, the public’s health and the right to life is ignored". In February 2020, Başaran was included in the new HDP Party Assembly at the 4th Party Congress in Ankara, but was not included in the Party's executive committee, having already served two terms. Instead she will take part in working groups, and was elected as chair of the party's Women's Council. As the spokeswomen for the women's branch of the HDP, she criticized the withdrawal from the

Istanbul convention The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic v ...

which defends women's rights.

Legal prosecution

On the 17 March 2021, the state prosecutor

Bekir Şahin Bekir Şahin (born 1 March 1960, Mecitözü, Turkey) is a jurist, former judge and the current State Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation in Turkey. Education He was educated at the Imam Hatip school and studied law at the Dokuz Eylül Universi ...

demanded for her and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban to a political activity together with a closure of the HDP due to organizational links with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK). In July 2021 a request for the lifting of her parliamentary immunity was brought forward in the Turkish parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Başaran, Ayşe Acar 1985 births Democratic Society Party politicians Deputies of Batman Kurdish politicians 21st-century Kurdish women politicians Kurdish lawyers Kurdish women lawyers Turkish Kurdish politicians Living people People from Batman, Turkey Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey 21st-century Turkish women politicians 21st-century Turkish politicians Turkish women MPs