Nazlı Ilıcak (born Ayşe Nazlı Çavuşoğlu; 14 November 1944) is a prominent Turkish journalist and writer. She was a deputy of the

Virtue Party Virtue Party ( tr, Fazilet Partisi, FP) was an Islamist political party established on 17 December 1997 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of ...

, elected in the 1999 Turkish general election, losing her seat when the party was banned in 2001.

Private life

Nazlı Ilıcak was born 1944 to , a politician and former government minister, and his wife İhsan in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey. Her brother is Ömer Çavuşoğlu. She attended the TED Ankara College, completed her secondary education however at

Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul ( tr, Notre Dame de Sion Özel Fransız Lisesi) is a French private high school located in the Harbiye, Şişli neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It was founded in 1856. The high school was established in the O ...

. Ilıcak studied Political Science at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

. In 1969, she married Kemal Ilıcak, publisher of the daily '' Tercüman''. She became mother of two from this marriage. Her husband died in 1993 due to brain-bleeding. Ilıcak remarried one year later to Emin Şirin. Her second marriage ended in 2003 with divorce.

Professional career

She entered journalism after her father's death in 1972. After working in various posts at ''Tercüman'', she became publisher of the tabloid ''Bulvar''. She later wrote for the newspapers ''Meydan'', ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', ''

Akşam ''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000. History ''Akşams founders in 1918 incl ...

'', ''

Yeni Şafak ''Yeni Şafak'' ("New Dawn") is a conservative, Islamist Turkish daily newspaper. The newspaper is known for its hardline support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Party and has a very close relationship with the Turkish governmen ...

'', ''

Takvim ''Takvim'' is a Turkish daily newspaper owned by Kalyon Group. The word "takvim" means calendar in Turkish. Founded by Dinç Bilgin in 1994, ''Takvim'' was acquired by Ahmet Çalık's Turkuvaz Media Group in 2008, as part of its $1.1bn purchase ...

'', ''

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory o ...

'' and '' Bugün''. Ilıcak and a dozen other prominent journalists lost their jobs in 2014 because they criticized the government.

Political career

Ilıcak was a deputy of the

, elected in the 1999 Turkish general election, losing her seat when the party was banned in 2001, and being banned from office for five years. She appealed to 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 ...

, ''Ilıcak v. Turkey'' (no. 15394/02), and it ruled this a violation of her human rights.

Prosecution

Ilicak continued writing anti-government articles defending Fethullah Gulen movement after the December 17/25 incidents in 2013. She was arrested in July 2016 as a part of ongoing

purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

after

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize cont ...

. On 16 February 2019 she received an aggravated life prison sentence. On 4 November 2019 the court of cassation lowered the sentence to 8 years, 9 months in prison, but released her on probation. She was released on 5 November 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilicak, Nazli 1944 births People from Ankara TED Ankara College Foundation Schools alumni Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul alumni University of Lausanne alumni Turkish women journalists Turkish women writers Turkish women in business Turkish businesspeople Hürriyet people Sabah (newspaper) people Akşam people Yeni Şafak people Virtue Party politicians Living people Inmates of Bakırköy Prison for Women Turkish expatriates in Switzerland