Gurbetelli Ersöz (1965, Palu, Elazığ– 8 October 1997,

South Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...

) was a chemist, journalist and later also member of 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 south ...

(PKK).

Biography

Gurbetelli was born in Palu, Elazığ, and studied chemistry at the University. Later she worked as an assistant at the

Çukurova University Çukurova University ( tr, Çukurova Üniversitesi) is a public university in Adana, Turkey. The university has sixteen faculties, three colleges, seven vocational colleges, three institutes and twenty six research and application centers. ...

. As a chemist she calls the

Chernobyl catastrophe The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor, reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainia ...

of 1986 and the chemical attack in Halabja in 1988 two major events, turning points in her life. Following, she began to get involved politically active, she wanted to make a change. Due to her political activities, she was arrested in 1990, and prosecuted and sentenced for supporting the PKK. She stayed in prison for two years. After her release, she became the Editor in-Chief of ''

Özgür Gündem ''Özgür Gündem'' ( Turkish for "Free Agenda") was an Istanbul-based daily Turkish language newspaper, mainly read by Kurds. Launched in May 1992, the newspaper was known for its extensive reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, and was reg ...

'', a newspaper which showed the Kurdish side of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. But her tenure was short-lived as she was detained with 107 other people during a search of the newspapers headquarters in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

on the 10 December 1993. Eventually she was arrested on the 12 January 1994. During the trial the prosecutor demanded up to 15 years imprisonment. Gurbetelli and the other prosecuted journalists were supported by the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...

and writers like

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

. She was sentenced to 3 Years and 9 months imprisonment but released in June 1994. After she was not allowed no work as a journalist, she joined the PKK in 1995. She was killed in combat on the 8 October 1997. A case was opened at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

in 1998 mentioning her together with other former staff members of ''Özgür Gündem''. The court decided not to consider her being a applicant to the court as she has died in 1997.

Legacy

Gurbetelli is seen as a proficient journalist in the Kurdish society and within the Musa Anter and Free Press Martyrs Journalism Awards of the Free Journalists Association of Turkey, there exists a Gurbetelli Award in her memory. To the award ceremony of 2016, several politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) attended. The Press Academy of the PKK also bears her name. The visual artist

Banu Cennetoğlu Banu Cennetoğlu (b. Ankara, 1970) is a visual artist based in Istanbul. She uses photography, installation, and printed matter to explore the classification, appropriation and distribution of data and knowledge. Her work deals with listings, colle ...

presented an art work about her diary at the Documenta 14 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. Her diary was published in Germany in 1998 and called ''I Engraved My Heart into the Mountains'' and in 2014 the book was also published in Turkey, but soon after the book was banned by the Turkish authorities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurbetelli Ersoz Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Kurdish journalists Turkish prisoners and detainees 1965 births 1997 deaths Kurdish female military and paramilitary personnel Kurdish military personnel killed in action