Burcu Çelik Özkan (born 1 January 1986,

Muş Muş (; ; ) is a city in eastern Turkey. It is the seat of Muş Province and Muş District.İl Beled ...

Turkish parliament The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Education and professional career

Burcu Çelik Özkan has a law degree from the

Marmara University Marmara University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university, named after the Sea of Marmara, was founded as a university in 1982. However, its ...

. After she worked as a lawyer and was involved in the Libertarian Jurists Platform.

Political career

Özkan was active in the local HDP branch of

Beylikdüzü Beylikdüzü () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 39 km2, and its population is 415,290 (2024). It is on the European side of Istanbul, located north of the Sea of Marmara, south of Esenyurt, east of ...

before being elected into parliament. Özkan was elected as an MP for Muş in the general elections in June 2015 and again in the snap elections in November 2015. During her term she was a defender of

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

rights

Prosecution

Özkan was arrested in April 2017. She was condemned to 6 years imprisonment in a first trial for "committing crimes on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member", a sentence she appealed. In October 2017 the sentence was overturned and in February 2018 a new trial was ordered to take place. On 10 April 2018, an appeal court in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

handed opposition MP Burcu Çelik Özkan a sentence of more than seven years in prison for terrorism propaganda. On the 6 October 2019 the verdict was overruled by the court of cassation and she was subsequently released.

References

External links

Burcu Çelik Özkan TBMM
Turkish dissidents Turkish people imprisoned on terrorism charges 21st-century Turkish politicians Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians 1986 births Living people Marmara University alumni {{Turkey-politician-stub